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Solo Travel Site/App

I've taken a couple of vacations by myself that I really enjoyed (a trip to Barcelona, skiing/Sundance Film Festival in Utah, a road trip through the southeast of the United States). I'm inspired by the fact that the /r/solotravel subreddit has over 800k subscribers and is growing by around 20k subscribers per month! If you search Instagram for #solotravel you get over 5.5 million results. There tons of articles, blogs, and books about solo travel. Travel is a gigantic industry with room for a lot of players.

Looking through the posts on /r/solotravel, they seem to fall into a few main categories: seeking advice, looking for ways to work while traveling, and looking for people to hang out with while traveling.

I'm seriously considering building a site/app that's helps solo travelers find other solo travelers to hang out with, has a forum, and aggregates content (articles, blog posts, social media posts). Basically everything solo travelers might want.

There are a lot of possibilities, but initially I think a web site and mobile app with features to help solo travelers find other solo travelers to hang out with, and content aggregation from around the web to drive traffic to the site/app would be the top priorities.

As far as monetizing it, maybe use a Pay-What-You-Want model and show travel-related ads to users who are using the site for free?

Questions:

  • What do you think of this idea?
  • Any suggestions for narrowing focus ?
  • How would you monetize it?
  • How would you market it?

I'm just about done with a landing page for gathering email addresses for people interested in it. Should have that up this weekend!

Edit: The landing page is up! https://solotravelbunch.com

Thanks,
Eric

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    This is pretty cool. It's somewhat like Nomad List but that's more geared towards digital nomads. I like the concept. I think you have something that could work here. You'll have to figure out the monetization strategy though.

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      Yes, @levelsio is really doing an amazing job with Nomad List!

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      This comment was deleted 2 years ago.

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    What do you think of this idea?

    Great idea. I'd travel more if I had a community that was focused on solo travel. This is my situation for reference:

    1. I am 21 year old software developer in Devon. My friends 'from home' are in Preston (300 miles away), the town I left when I was 18. These friends don't have any money to travel as they are at university.

    2. My friends that I know in Devon I mostly know through work - we get on but most are older than me and all have different life situations etc. So who do I travel with?

    Any suggestions for narrowing focus ?

    Make it for people who work in tech, more than solo travel specifically. I'd imagine that the situation I'm in is pretty common for most young devs (lifelong friends do not have budget/schedule I do, basically).

    How would you monetize it?

    My eyeballs are pretty valuable imo - the travel industry would love all that disposable income, and the tech theme makes your audience more homogeneous and therefore more valuable. I'm not talking banner ads, I'm talking offers for members, sponsored blog posts etc. Especially travel startups.

    How would you market it?

    ?? not my area of expertise. Pay some digital nomad 'influencers' to promote it (similar to 'Raid: Shadow Legends'). Would need some budget though.

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    Would definitely use it, if you have experienced a hostel recreating that environment as much as you can online would be nice.

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      Thanks! I've never stayed in a hostel, but I'll look into it. What are some things you like about the hostel environment?

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        It's hard to explain. Maybe take a trip and experience it when you get the chance. Use an app like hostelworld

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    Something that is needed: Solo woman travel partner app. Make sure to confirm each user...

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        Oh and make it free please, monetize later or through ads, my mom would def love this service!

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    Hey Eric, good to see you're working in the same space(travel) as us - it's a tough sector to crack. :( However, I think there is an opportunity in the niche of solo female travel - something like a slack board where females can reach out and connect each other. You could charge a yearly fee - to verify members. Happy to discuss further on a call/email or here :)

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      Thanks! I have not used couchsurfing. I'll check it out.

      One interesting thing i found is that about 60% of solo travelers are age 55 or older. That could be a good niche to focus on... not sure how many of those are using couchsurfing. ;) It might be an under-served community.

      https://solotravelerworld.com/about/solo-travel-statistics-data/

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