Show IH: takeabed - turning people into travel agents
We'd really love some feedback on our product and thoughts on how the marketing community on IH would go about promoting the apps.
What we are is a hotel booking app that turns people into travel agents. Our platform lets anyone search hotels the same way you would on other booking websites or apps but with a twist. You can share the hotels as recommendations and when the person you sent it to books that hotel you earn a commission.
This is possible because we don't add a high mark up. Allowing anyone with a PRO membership access to the hotels at a wholesale price. The commission for PRO recommendated booking can go up to 30% on the total recommendation.
Hey @brayson, love the idea. I looked into this about a year ago and did some research, so hopefully what I type below will help.
When I last looked, the travel industry is insanely protective. There was another start up (forgot the name) that did something like this. They're still in business, but basically the whole commission thing makes the person who recommended the hotel/airplane/etc a travel agent in some jurisdictions, which is under regulation in (you guessed it) some of these jurisdictions.
Long story short, the travel industry sued that start up (mentioned above) and they had to stop offering their services in certain jurisdictions with these rules. Not to scare you away from this industry, but hopefully this will save you some time in the planning of your business and strategy.
Disclaimer: I'm not a legal expert. The above was just what I found on Google in my own research for a project with similar payout mechanics to recommendations related to the travel industry.
I like this. Clever.
how do you guys split commissions for: users/hotels /yourself?
Good question, We have two type of memberships. FREE which pays users up to 15% commission and PRO which can be up to 30% commission. Also the users commission is from the total recommendation no hidden fees. Another great feature for PRO's. is that they can adjust their commission so it's up to them. We take 3% of each booking but that comes from our hotel partners. The booking price isn't effected. The rest of the profit goes to the hotel.
Our goal is to create more jobs and opportunity for travelers.
Sounds like a pretty cool idea! I'm far from a marketing expert, so this was just the first idea that popped in my head: Contact travel bloggers and see if they'd like to become agents.
Thanks for the comment and advice @AndrewV we are putting together a list of travel bloggers, communities and influencers as we speak.