About TripHub

Summer, summer, summertime - and great rates! (June 7, 2006)

While life at a start up often doesn't provide much time to sit back and unwind, we recently learned that we're not alone... A study conducted by Expedia revealed that Americans are likely to give back more than 574 million vacation days in 2006, with each employed U.S. adult age 18 and older anticipated to leave an average of four vacation days on the table. And one third of Americans do not always take all of their vacation days, despite more than one-third reporting that they feel better about their job and more productive upon returning from vacation.  So, if you haven't yet, start planning your summer vacation today. Use it or lose it :-)

And, if you're shopping for hotels, note the Low Rate Guarantee!

And Celebrate Together! (May 26, 2006)

We say it on our front page, so when the teams at Redfin and TechCrunch invited us to co-sponsor their Web 2.0 Party next week, we said sure!  Besides, we've had our heads down working our tails off and believe we've earned a party, and we look forward to spending some time with friends and colleagues from local companies big and small.  Please join us.

Postscript:  Great turn out and fun time last night.  Read John Cook and Michael Arrington's post-party wrap ups.  TripHub advisor, Mike Fridgen, also wrote a review of the event on his Travel Start-Ups blog.

The TripHub team at the event: (See more pictures from the party on Flickr.)

Relax Together, Play Together, Create Memories Together (May 25, 2006)

You may've noticed the words "Relax Together, Play Together, Create Memories Together" on our front page. We believe this is the essence of traveling with others.

I recently read a story in USA Today about how a group of citizens in Poway, CA (just north of San Diego) lobbied leaders of the town's schools, businesses, churches and sports leagues to clear the calendars so that on the evening of May 22nd, folks were free to do nothing other than relax and spend time together. "No homework, no play rehearsals, no soccer games, no prayer groups, no civic meetings. Just time — 5 to 9 p.m., a window carefully chosen for parents and children to shut down their engines and do whatever it is that people did in lazy times gone by."

In our busy and often overscheduled lives it can be challenging to find the time to have dinner with family or friends let alone take a vacation with them. It may be cliché, but I had the rare opportunity to take a vacation with my family last week and was reminded how important it is spend time with family and friends.

Whether you're driving to the beach for a long weekend, heading to Las Vegas with your buddies, or jetting off to Europe for a two week tour of Italy, and whether you're traveling with immediate or extended family, old or new friends, I encourage everyone to make the time relax, play and create memories together.

New Look (May 24, 2006)

Those of you who are actively planning trips or tracking our progress will notice that we updated our site this week. Based in large part on your feedback, we have taken several steps to simplify our design and to make it easier to find and use TripHub's group planning tools. For example, we have made it easier to research and discuss hotel options with your group from your trip home page. On the front page, we've added a more detailed description of what to expect if you use TripHub to plan and organize your trip. We are also bringing more of our rich content to the fore to help you learn about our service and to find the information you need. In addition, several of you asked us where we get our hotel inventory. (Good question! And doesn't seem like something you'd have to read a FAQ to know...) The answer is Hotels.com. Hotels.com is a division of Expedia Inc., a leading provider of lodging worldwide, and through them we are able to offer a wide selection of accommodations at competitive prices.

These are just a few of the many changes we've made. Please let us know what you think! And watch for more improvements and new features in the weeks and months ahead.

What's a Lifehack? (May 11, 2006)

According to their site, Lifehacker's mission is to make it easier and more fun to get things done. (Sounds a lot like our mission!) Lifehacker's team writes about technology that has the power to improve our busy lives and offers "simple and totally life-altering tips and tricks for managing your information and time."  We're excited that they chose to feature TripHub in their blog this week.  Read what they have to say.

More Reviews & Feedback - Add Your Comments (April 21, 2006)

Wow, it's been a busy few weeks!  We continue to learn a tremendous amount about how to improve the group travel and event planning experience on a almost daily basis, and I'd like to thank the dozens of people who have taken the time to send us feedback.  We appreciate it very much.  Your input is extremely valuable.

In particular, I'd like to share one of the more detailed and insightful write ups we've received to date.  The following was written by Adam Sheppard.  Adam works at Microsoft (labs.live.com) and publishes a newsletter in which he identifies and reviews emerging technologies and online services.  Here's what he had to say about TripHub:

The premise of a collaborative environment that provides rich tools for the key milestones of a group trip is a good one. Even better, if it evolves through the lifecycle of the trip whether it’s collectively pooling photos that individuals have taken or blog entries made, providing a gateway to communication / broadcasting messages to the group via SMS, or simply settling up bills and IOUs. While on paper this sounds like a good idea, it’s actually a fairly daunting task to do this well. I think the v1.0 is a good start but it’s got a ways to go. The problem with a lot of groupware is that it often tries to do too much or force the user to do things that take more time and effort than it would to simply just start an e-mail thread. Here 's my specific feedback:

1. I'd like to be able to see all comments about a hotel not just those of the working group.

2. A group task list would be a very cool addition.

3. Transparency. I didn't feel like I knew the source of who / where you were searching when you retrieved flights and hotels.

4. I'd like to use my preferred aggregator engine and see the collaboration stuff as a sidebar beside it.

5. For the current startup environment, it doesn't look Web 2.0 enough.

6. You need a product blog even if it's just a couple of entries describing what's coming.

7. Not sure if there's one place to see the aggregate of everything everyone has contributed to the trip.

8. Give people a reason to want to add info. It shouldn't feel purely utilitarian, make it fun to see what people are adding and then look for a way to extend it during and post trip.

9. Tell me right up front why the collaboration benefits are worth the time and effort.

In direct response to Adam's point #6, here we go!  Please note that we have added comments to this page and we look forward to an active dialog with you.

We agree with Adam's feedback, and our team is working on new functionality that will address several of his suggestions.  A few pieces may take longer to deliver, but please stay tuned and let us know what YOU think we can do to make the service more complete and easier to use.  Thanks!

What's in a group? (March 24, 2006)

For many people the term "group travel" conjures the image of a bus tour hosted by a professional guide. For others it brings to mind large corporate conferences and meetings. And still for others it means clubs, teams, and school/student groups traveling to events, festivals, tournaments, etc.

Group travel is all this and more!

While airlines typically define groups as 10 or more passengers flying on the same itinerary, and hotels define groups as a block of 10 or more rooms, there is a growing trend of people traveling together in smaller and less structured groups.

According to Yesawich, Pepperdine, Brown & Russell, a travel research and marketing firm, 80% of people who travel for leisure have taken at least one trip with extended family or friends in the past 5 years. Many people take these trips every year and some do it more than once per year. This trend has been labeled "togethering."

These "togethering" groups include multi-generational family trips, reunions, destination weddings, and any number of friends traveling together (by car, 747 or anything in between). Whether it's three families renting houses at the beach for a week, a weekend playing golf with the guys, or a bachelorette party, these are all group trips.

So, however you define your "group," we're here to help you plan and coordinate your next trip or event.

Trust! (March 17, 2006)

After all, isn't that what it's about? Will the product or service work as expected and advertised? Will my email address be sold? Will my friends and family who I invite to participate in a trip be spammed? Will my transactions be secure?

These are important questions when deciding whether to use any online service.

We care deeply about these issues and understand that we need to earn your trust and confidence.

Here's our commitment:

1. We will NEVER sell or rent your email address or the email addresses of your guests.

2. Your guests will only receive email specifically related to the trip you're planning.

3. We will at all times respect and protect your personal information.

4. We will strive for simplicity and ease of use.

5. We will be responsive to service and support requests.

6. We will be straight forward and honest in our communications.

You might think of this as a customer Bill of Rights. We will enrich it over time, but we will not waiver from the core principle of respecting our customers.

To learn more, please read our Privacy Policy. And, please email me (Josh Herst) with any questions or concerns. Thank you.

Insight and Resources for Group Organizers (March 10, 2006)

Did you sign up to organize your next family reunion, get-away with friends, or a school, club or team trip?  Wondering how to get through it without pulling out your hair? TripHub's new Group Trip Advisor blog is here to help!

Hosted by Jocelyn Milici, an experienced editor and travel industry veteran, this blog is devoted to providing tips and resources that will help make your next group trip or event a success. This is your blog too, so please share your insights, experience and feedback. And if you send us your questions, we'll do our best to answer them.

We will be adding new content to the blog weekly, so please check back often or subscribe to our RSS feed and get our headlines right on your AOL, Google, MSN or Yahoo home page.

A Sister Site is Born (March 3, 2006)

This week marked the launch of alaska.triphub.com, a co-branded version of TripHub's group travel and event planning services specifically for Alaska Airlines.

Alaska, the 9th largest U.S. airline, has a long history of technology innovation, and we are very pleased to provide group planning services to Alaska's customers. Please visit the site and let us know what you think.

Groups represent about 12 percent of Alaska's passengers. And so far, in our first week of service, we have helped religious groups, family groups, team trips, school trips and wedding groups plan their travel via alaskaair.com. And, not surprisingly, the most popular destination has been Las Vegas!

Jeff Gayduk, Publisher of Leisure Group Travel writes, "This is a positive move for the industry. These companies bring marketing clout and legitimacy to the group travel movement and indicate we're on the verge of a revolution."

Read more about TripHub's relationship with Alaska Airlines.