Tripscout is
launching a hotel booking platform that co-founder and CEO Konrad Waliszewski
says will offer private rates at discounts of up to 75% below the best publicly
available rates.
The rates will
only be accessible through a private, closed user group that travelers join by sending
a direct message with the word “hotel” to Tripscout’s @hotel Instagram account –
or one of the more than 100 secondary accounts the company also operates such
as @paris.explore and @newyorkcity.explore – which combined have more than 30
million followers. The booking function is launching today on 20 accounts and
rolling out to the remainder in the next two months.
Once that message
is sent, the user is connected to a chatbot that links to a booking platform
with typical search and filter functions and global inventory from bedbanks,
online travel agencies and other suppliers. The booking platform link is unique
to the account that sent the initial direct message.
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“Social media is
the new SEO, yet the legacy travel industry has been built on transactional
interactions, driven by billions of annual advertising spend. We’ve approached
the market quite differently. We’ve built a large, passionate and loyal
audience of frequent travelers, and we’re excited to launch these game-changing
private offers on Instagram, so they can travel more, travel better, and spend
less in a post-pandemic world,” Waliszewski says.
Along with this
launch, the company is announcing it has raised nearly $14 million. Of that, $10.25 million is Series A
funding led by existing investors Accomplice and Corazon Capital, with participation from additional existing investors MATH Venture Partners, New Stack Ventures and M25, and $3.5 million is venture debt from Triple Point Capital.
Waliszewski says the company will use the funding to continue to develop the booking platform, to grow
followers across all of its accounts with a goal of having 100 million next year and to invest in partnerships
with travel content creators and influencers to add more “interesting and
compelling” photos and videos to its accounts and for its hotel partners.
“Social
media is the new SEO, yet the legacy travel industry has been built on
transactional interactions, driven by billions of annual advertising spend,” Waliszewski
says.
“We’ve approached
the market quite differently. We’ve built a large, passionate and loyal
audience of frequent travelers, and we’re excited to launch these game-changing
private offers on Instagram, so they can travel more, travel better, and spend
less in a post-pandemic world.”
“Tripscout recognized early on
that a shift in user behavior in travel created an opportunity to serve
travelers where they were now spending time online,” says Phil Schwarz of
Corazon Capital and former CMO of Tinder.
“Social media is such an
incredibly powerful platform for travel inspiration and discovery, with 87% of
millennials generating their travel inspiration from social platforms. Among
these, Instagram has clearly proven to be the most important platform for
acquiring and retaining an audience in travel. Tripscout has not only quietly
become the global leader in travel on social media, but it has also built
significant value-creating technology.”
Tripscout’s last
funding round of $2.3 million was in March 2021.