kuisch

One thing I'd do differently though is start out with a website (vs. an app). It's very true that Facebook doesn't have any form of domain-specific search fields. But it's very accessible. I realize that n = 1 here, but the friction in having to download another separate app to my phone would be too high for me to switch from using the different Facebook groups. I think you'd want to make it as easy as possible to access your solution (or at least submit WTB requests) in order for this to take off. In that light, a website would be much better I think.

On another note, here's a really good read on why Facebook may help you out a lot, but would also most likely be your biggest competitor: http://alexmuir.com/facebook-is-the-new-excel

Anyway, very cool. Happy to chat more if you like -- I'm at [email protected].

Comment · 10 years ago

I think most travelers would probably fall in either one of these three categories:

Those that know where they'd like to go, how much they'd like to spend, and when they'd like to travel. (Traditional OTAs cater well to this category of people)

Those that know where they'd like to go and how much they'd like to spend, but don't know when they they'd like to travel. (e.g. When it would be cheapest to fly out; one solution that does a pretty good job of addressing this is Hitlist http://techcrunch.com/2014/02/07/hitlist-a-smarter-flight-fi...)

Those that don't know where to go, but do know how much they'd like to spend, and when they'd like to travel. (This would be the category we're addressing)

Along the 'where', '$', and 'when' dimensions, there would clearly be more combinations possible (i.e. 8), but the majority should fall in the three listed above. And sure, feel free to drop me a line at [email protected] -- always curious to hear about how others are thinking about this!

Comment · 10 years ago

Yes we've been thinking about this as well. On the one hand, it's not being able to get the .com domain as well as the fact that people might confuse it with the Yoga festival you linked to (although we're primarily focused on Europe, at least initially, and the festival is US only). On the other hand, the word perfectly captures the essence of our solution. 'Wanderlust' means 'a strong desire to travel' which is exactly the feeling that we mean to associate ourselves with -- the feeling of knowing that you'd like to get away for a few days, but not knowing where to go. And thank you!

Comment · 10 years ago

Your characterization of travellers seems a bit off to me. Along those dimensions, there'd be at least two or three other categories of travellers. Not sure how to respond to that.

As for monetization: we don't plan to rush this. Once we have our recommendation engine built out and fleshed out, we will build business around it. But to optimize for revenue in the short term would probably be to diminish our chances in the long term. We want to prioritize consumer experience over everything else. And then only once we have that ramped up to a good scale, we could leverage the customer relationship to move down the funnel, closer and closer to the transaction itself.

Having said that, we're exploring multiple paths to monetization. For example, we think that Wanderlust will have an interesting advertising opportunity, with 1) high ARPU, 2) high purchase-intent, and 3) a user still open to suggestions (a bit like Pinterest's opportunity). One other stream we're thinking about is offering hotels an annual/monthly flat-fee to be featured on our platform.

Comment · 10 years ago

A PhocusWright study from 2010 found that 40% of (EU) travelers that plan their trip online don't have a destination in mind beforehand. I imagine that this number would be slightly higher for a younger demographic (18-35), which we aim to address initially (thinking 'I don't specifically care where I'm going; I just want to see something new'). The European online hotel & flight sale market itself is valued at roughly $210B. I also expect Wanderlust to be used mainly for shorter city breaks (4-5 day trips) as opposed to actual summer holidays, where most of us tend to have at least some idea of where to go.

I am not sure if the analogy you draw to a local equivalent (and if that fails, surely this would fail) is entirely fair. It's an area I didn't look into specifically.

Comment · 10 years ago

I'm familiar with Tripaya. As pointed out earlier, there are a few others with a similar approach. There's no real network effect here, so I expect that 1) there will be less of a winner-takes-all dynamic (i.e. room for more than 1 player) and 2) it won't be so much about who gets there first as about who gets it right.

Comment · 10 years ago

Thank you - we're aiming for the end of April!

Comment · 10 years ago

That's fair. To be clear, we're very much aware of the 'inspiration' features that the existing players offer (e.g. kayak.com/explore or booking.com/destinationfinder.html). Perhaps I could have worded it differently.

I do think there's a significant difference between adding the capability onto your core, legacy product line vs. starting from scratch and making it the central focus, the thing the entire venture revolves around. Most travel agencies are still optimized for conversion (i.e. the bottom of the funnel); not for planning.

kuisch

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