Proving that there may still be life in the social travel concept is Qaribu, a startup which is part trip planning, part online travel agency and part social network.
Like others before it, the idea came about when a group of friends tried to plan a multi-centre trip.
The core team is founders Michael Haase, Johannes Hebbelmann, Oliver Kohlenbeck, David Stauffer and Justus Zeppenfeld who work together on day-to-day operations, gaining a presence in the market and strategic partnerships.
Qaribu has been self-funded so far but the plan is to seek capital to grow further.
The startup sees itself as a niche player within a large online travel market because of its combination of social travel and booking and does not believe there is much direct competition in its segment of the market.
" The only other start-up that comes close to our concept is Vamo, who are also on a very good way to develop the niche we find ourselves in at the moment. But even here, we find a different strategy, as we focus more on the “social” planning and giving the customer the greatest possible freedom in planning."
Revenue at Qaribu will be earned via the commissions and service fees for transactions made via the platform. The startup is also exploring the potential to licensing its in-house developed booking engine to third parties.
What problem does the business solve?
Qaribu allows planning and booking trips over multiple destinations, also together with friends or colleagues, who might be starting from different locations.
Travellers can add all their desired destinations, set the dates for the trip and then search for all available options for transportation and accommodation, all in a matter of minutes. The customer can then book and reserve all selected products together.
Planning together with others is made efficient through the use of our social network. Since every user has a profile, other travellers for a trip can simply be added to an itinerary and can then participate in the planning process. Users can also be added as planners, who can assist travellers in the planning process, without being included in an itinerary themselves, once it is booked.
So far we only provide the possibility to book flights and hotels, but we are looking to integrate more content, like trains, buses, transfers, tours or activities.
How did the initial idea evolve and were there changes/any pivots along the way in the early stages?
Three years have passed since the first draft. Even though we modified a lot of details along the way, we never compromised on the outcome. We started over from scratch three times along the way, in order to get the results we wanted and to fit everything we had planned into an efficient architecture.
The idea evolved over time, but in the sense that we realized a lot more uses for our technology, such as the possibility to license it to our peers, other OTAs or even offline travel agents, to give them the opportunity to offer better customer service to their clients.
Why should people or companies use the business?
Because planning complex trips is a time- and nerve consuming activity. Qaribu does not only offer a very efficient way to plan complex trips together with peers, but it even allows saving these trips and reload them later, if a decision to book is postponed.
What is the strategy for raising awareness and the customer/user acquisition (apart from PR)?
With a limited budget, this is probably the greatest challenge. Until now, we focused largely on the development of our technology and the user experience on the platform. We are still in the process of planning a proper marketing strategy.
So far we have received great feedback from users and travel experts, who are helping us spread the word.
For now we can say this: as in our technological development, we are keen to create value for our customers in everything we do, this includes the marketing.
Where do you see the company in three years time and what specific challenges do you anticipate having to overcome?
In three years, we see Qaribu as the first established social-travel agency, with a happy community built around it. We hope to see Qaribu get the recognition for this objective.
The biggest challenges we are anticipating are building up our own community and also to successfully close the gap between online and offline travel distribution.
What is wrong with the travel, tourism and hospitality industry that it requires a startup like yours to help it out?
Even though we read a lot about the innovation and advancements in the online tourism industry, we frankly don't see much of it. In the realm of OTAs, we can still see the same technologies used 15 years ago.
Many companies ultimately focus on giving customers the cheapest price and fail to distinguish themselves clearly from their competitors.
There are a lot of sites out there that focus on booking touristic services, but you cannot properly plan a trip. Then there are lots of trip-planning tools, where you cannot book your planned trips, or that are only useful, once you have already done all the work yourself.
We tap into the potential that this friction is offering.
What other technology company (in or outside of travel) would you consider yourselves most closely aligned to in terms of culture and style... and why?
We focus on the development of technological features, which give the customer a unique travel planning and -booking experience. As no one from our development team actually came out of the travel industry, and we wanted to change things anyway, our inspiration rather came from companies and technologies outside of travel.
Apples iTunes Store or Google docs were definitely some good sources of inspiration.
Which company would be the best fit to buy your startup?
Good Question. We are actually just focussed on building and establishing our own brand and to develop strategic partnerships at the moment.
But thinking about the question, we see maybe tour operators, that are struggling with setting foot into the online world, and that have networks of offline travel agencies, as candidates, who might be interested in getting their hands on a tool, that can perfectly close a gap between their online and offline operations.
Describe your startup in three words?
Qaribu gives travelling a home.
Tnooz view:
Qaribu faces enormous challenges ahead.
It mentions above the challenges of building a community and closing the gap between online and offline travel as just two. Countless startups claiming to in the social travel space have tried, failed and ended up pivoting.
So far social networks for travel have not really gained much traction but maybe they were ahead of their time and Qaribu can make an impact.
Integration with Facebook might help but it does put brands at the mercy of the social media giant.
In addition, while consumers love to boast about where they've been on Facebook, it's worth pondering whether they really want all their travel planning exposed on the network.
That second challenge is also worth a bit more exploration given the efforts made by online giants to try and address the issue via call-centres, online chat services and degrees of personalisation.
There will be other challenges. Expedia, for example, developed Trip Companion, its own group planning service and there are other smaller players - TripCake, Make It Social, TripCommon, Flights with Friends, Travefy, with businesses based on a similar theme, all vying for attention in this space.
Perhaps the way forward for Qaribu will be in licensing its technology and the startup says it in talks with several tour operators.
We will watch with interest on how this startup evolves in terms of funding, gaining traction and ultimately whether it will need to focus its efforts on one element of the process.
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