TripHub Delivers New Ways to Share and Promote Trips

PR Newswire (October 24, 2006)

SEATTLE – TripHub, www.triphub.com, the best place to plan, organize and share any gathering that involves travel, introduced today new ways to share and promote trips. TripHub’s advanced settings enable trip organizers to easily control access to their trips, and to promote their trips on and offline. These enhancements are particularly relevant for clubs, teams, religious organizations, college students, and other groups where some level of membership or affinity exists.

“Fall is when we travel to away football games, join fellow parents at our children’s tournaments, and start planning holiday, ski, and spring break trips with friends,” said Josh Herst, founder and CEO of TripHub. “TripHub’s new tools further empower groups to quickly organize an event or trip, control who can view the details, and to promote the trip anywhere from their MySpace to print newsletters.”

A URL for Every Trip

TripHub, which has been used by thousands of customers to plan trips with friends and family, developed these new services to eliminate two major challenges in planning group travel – sharing trip details and keeping everyone informed. Organizers and trip members can now share their trip via a simple, unique URL. The trip URL can be sent in an email, posted on a Web site, or published in a flyer or formal invitation. Advanced settings allow organizers to control who has access to the trip details and who is invited to participate. In addition, email notifications keep people informed of changes throughout the planning process.

Supporting Clubs, Teams, Religious Groups and Spring Breakers

Sports clubs and fans, parents who join their children at away games, college spring breakers, and other groups where the common bond is some form of membership or affiliation will benefit from these new features. ”Trip organizers do not always know the email addresses for every guest, or even who may want to participate. In these situations, it makes sense to enable broad promotion of trip details both on and offline,” said Herst. “Ultimately, the trip organizer can control who joins the trip on a case by case basis.”

Some of the planning scenarios supported by TripHub’s latest innovations include:

Ski Clubs – Club members can set up a trip and post the URL to the club Web site or in a monthly newsletter. Existing and potential club members can see the details and request an invitation to join the trip. According to the National Ski Club Newsletter, there are at least 2,500 ski clubs in the U.S. representing over 1 million skiers.

Parents – Parents can coordinate attendance at tournaments, performances, and other events that require travel. Parents can view the trip details, join the trip, and coordinate transportation and accommodations with other families. TripHub estimates that there are more than 1 million youth and student trips every year (based on data from the National Center for Education Statistics).

Religious Organizations – Event planners can use TripHub to communicate details of an upcoming retreat or pilgrimage. Trip URLs can be shared via a monthly newsletter or in the weekend program. Members can request an invitation. Retreat details can be hidden so that only approved members can view them. According to Premier Tourism & Marketing there are over 50,000 churches in the U.S. that run group travel programs.

Spring Break Trips – College students can recruit attendees by linking to their TripHub trip from their MySpace, or by posting it on a flyer in their living space or common area. Participation can be capped, but anyone who discovers the URL can join the trip. More than 2 million students travel for spring break every year according to Student Monitor LLC.

About TripHub

TripHub.com, the best place to plan, organize and share any gathering that involves travel, has been used by thousands of customers to plan gatherings and events such as family vacations, birthday celebrations, bachelor parties, spa vacations, reunions, weddings and cruises. TripHub is re-defining group travel to include any trip outside a nuclear family – if it involves more than one credit card, it’s a group. TripHub believes that planning and sharing life experiences with friends, family, and others who share similar passions and interests should be easy and fun. TripHub was founded in 2005 by Expedia and Microsoft veterans and is headquartered in Seattle. The company is funded by Madrona Venture Group and private investors. Visit www.triphub.com.