
Apply HN: Wanderlust – Travel recommendations based on your budget and interests - kuisch
Wanderlust is a website that helps you find out where you could travel to based on how much you can spend and what you like to see. A new way to plan and book your trips. An answer to the question of <i>‘where should I go?’</i>.<p>The majority of traditional online travel websites (e.g. Booking, SkyScanner) work under the assumption that you know where you’re going. But what if you don’t know this? We don’t always have a destination in mind, but what we typically do have is a general sense of how much we can spend, what we like to see, and when we’d like to travel. Taking these variables into account, Wanderlust provides you with a complete trip - including destination, flight, accommodation, and an overview of the best things to do and see while you’re there.<p>To be sure, it’s still a little rough around the edges, but here&#x27;s a quick demo: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;vid.me&#x2F;TnZL<p>Our Product Hunt feature a while ago: https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.producthunt.com&#x2F;tech&#x2F;wanderlust-pre-launch<p>Happy to answer any questions you may have!<p>(A bit about the team: Technical founder, BSc &amp; MSc in Engineering physics; PHd in Artificial Intelligence. Business founder, Background in Communications; previously at Google, Vodafone.)
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venkasub
From my experience, there are 3 kinds of traveller: 1\. People who know where
they are going for a stipulated period of time 2\. People who know which
region they are going to over a long period of time 3\. People who have taken
a sabbatical or couple of years off or have decided that they are going to be
on road for a long period of time.

For #1 - hotel and flight deals matter the most For #2 - they figure out most
of the stuff while on the move and do not want to plan much. they pretty much
buy to-fro tickets from their base and figure out everything else on the move.

Monetizing the idea of 'where should i go' looks pretty tough to me. My pals
tried a venture wherein based on the region of interest the website would come
up with an itinerary, they couldnt do well and had to fold.

Travel industry needs technology and some disruption; it hasn't seen anything
'interesting' other than the known Skyscanner, TripAdvisor, Agoda etc for a
long period of time now.

~~~
kuisch
Your characterization of travellers seems a bit off to me. Along those
dimensions, there'd be at least two or three other categories of travellers.
Not sure how to respond to that.

As for monetization: we don't plan to rush this. Once we have our
recommendation engine built out and fleshed out, we will build business around
it. But to optimize for revenue in the short term would probably be to
diminish our chances in the long term. We want to prioritize consumer
experience over everything else. And then only once we have that ramped up to
a good scale, we could leverage the customer relationship to move down the
funnel, closer and closer to the transaction itself.

Having said that, we're exploring multiple paths to monetization. For example,
we think that Wanderlust will have an interesting advertising opportunity,
with 1) high ARPU, 2) high purchase-intent, and 3) a user still open to
suggestions (a bit like Pinterest's opportunity). One other stream we're
thinking about is offering hotels an annual/monthly flat-fee to be featured on
our platform.

~~~
tedmiston
I agree that the parent comment's three types of travelers isn't quite right
-- I'm curious to hear what the archetypes that you have in mind are though.

[I'm a huge fan of spontaneous travel and have some side projects in travel
destination/activity discovery myself. Happy to chat more via email.]

~~~
kuisch
I think most travelers would probably fall in either one of these three
categories:

Those that know _where_ they'd like to go, _how much_ they'd like to spend,
and _when_ they'd like to travel. (Traditional OTAs cater well to this
category of people)

Those that know _where_ they'd like to go and _how much_ they'd like to spend,
but don't know _when_ they they'd like to travel. (e.g. When it would be
cheapest to fly out; one solution that does a pretty good job of addressing
this is Hitlist [http://techcrunch.com/2014/02/07/hitlist-a-smarter-flight-
fi...](http://techcrunch.com/2014/02/07/hitlist-a-smarter-flight-finder-that-
saves-you-money-by-telling-you-when-to-fly-exits-beta/))

Those that don't know _where_ to go, but do know _how much_ they'd like to
spend, and _when_ they'd like to travel. (This would be the category we're
addressing)

Along the 'where', '$', and 'when' dimensions, there would clearly be more
combinations possible (i.e. 8), but the majority should fall in the three
listed above. And sure, feel free to drop me a line at aron@wanderlust.ly --
always curious to hear about how others are thinking about this!

------
brudgers
How big is the market for travelers who don't know where they want to go?

Could there be a market for alocal version of this? Something like an Uber
that takes people to 'arbitrary' restaurants. If not, why would people who
will risk flying and hotels but not a "cab" ride and a dinner?

~~~
kuisch
A PhocusWright study from 2010 found that 40% of (EU) travelers that plan
their trip online don't have a destination in mind beforehand. I imagine that
this number would be slightly higher for a younger demographic (18-35), which
we aim to address initially (thinking 'I don't specifically care where I'm
going; I just want to see something new'). The European online hotel & flight
sale market itself is valued at roughly $210B. I also expect Wanderlust to be
used mainly for shorter city breaks (4-5 day trips) as opposed to actual
summer holidays, where most of us tend to have at least some idea of where to
go.

I am not sure if the analogy you draw to a local equivalent (and if that
fails, surely this would fail) is entirely fair. It's an area I didn't look
into specifically.

~~~
brudgers
I wasn't trying to be unfair with the analogy, my apologies.

My purpose was to drill into what phrases like "not having a destination in
mind", "new experience", and "not caring" mean and expose the assumptions
about human behavior under pinning them.

It's a thought experiment. The scenario is simple and concrete and reduces the
likelihood of wishful thinking about human behavior. By lowering the
risk/reward ration, it is easier to see the economic model.

The first question then becomes, why would Ubering to random restaurants work
or not work?

And the second question is, how is the market Wanderlust wants to tackle
similar to and different from the Ubering to random restaurant market?

A third question, if Ubering to random restaurants is a viable market, given
the greater economic activity and higher recurrence of restaurant dining,
would it be a more scalable model, and if it isn't what makes Wanderlust's
market more scalable?

------
_ak
> The majority of traditional online travel websites (e.g. Booking,
> SkyScanner) work under the assumption that you know where you’re going. But
> what if you don’t know this?

Actually, lots of online travel agencies and aggregators have a
"discovery/inspiration" phase in their overall booking flow. At most you can
say that they're not doing it that well because you didn't recognize it as
what it is. Or maybe they are doing it well because the user is just led
through their flow and gets interested in certain destinations without
realizing he's being influenced.

How much research have you done what existing travel websites have done in
these regards?

~~~
kuisch
That's fair. To be clear, we're very much aware of the 'inspiration' features
that the existing players offer (e.g. kayak.com/explore or
booking.com/destinationfinder.html). Perhaps I could have worded it
differently.

I do think there's a significant difference between adding the capability onto
your core, legacy product line vs. starting from scratch and making it the
central focus, the thing the entire venture revolves around. Most travel
agencies are still optimized for conversion (i.e. the bottom of the funnel);
not for planning.

------
VuongN
I've been a little confused because I've seen the name "Wanderlust" somewhere
before. [http://wanderlust.com/](http://wanderlust.com/) isn't yours is it? If
it's not, then I would seriously consider a different name since .com domain
name combined with the fact that it has been around a little longer as well as
the (almost similar?) "explore something/somewhere" mission. Other than that,
your chance is as good as any one's. Good luck!

~~~
kuisch
Yes we've been thinking about this as well. On the one hand, it's not being
able to get the .com domain as well as the fact that people might confuse it
with the Yoga festival you linked to (although we're primarily focused on
Europe, at least initially, and the festival is US only). On the other hand,
the word perfectly captures the essence of our solution. 'Wanderlust' means 'a
strong desire to travel' which is exactly the feeling that we mean to
associate ourselves with -- the feeling of knowing that you'd like to get away
for a few days, but not knowing where to go. And thank you!

------
aramos
Travel planning is so time consuming, this seems the right way to search for a
trip. I've been using [http://www.tripaya.com](http://www.tripaya.com) for a
while, and love their user experience, it's like I'm already traveling. Good
luck guys, travel industry real needs disruptive solutions!

------
NeatoJn
Wherefor ([https://www.wherefor.com/](https://www.wherefor.com/)) does provide
traveling suggestions based on budget. However I think factoring travelling
interests is a nice idea. Maybe there can be more keywords for exploring? I
also quite like the minimal design style of the website.

~~~
kuisch
Yes, there are definitely others in this space exploring the same angle --
this is our take. And I think a broader category of interests is something
we're moving towards, but not our main priority at the moment.

------
fitzwatermellow
Good idea to focus on the European market first. So jealous when I hear my EU
friends talking about day trips to eat at a new restaurant in Copenhagen, or a
long weekend in Istanbul or Corfu ;)

~~~
brudgers
Do you think these trips are likely to be more the result of research and
interest by someone in the travel group than a blank slate?

------
singold
Previous submission
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11448307](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11448307)

------
atduarte
Exists already: [http://www.tripaya.com/](http://www.tripaya.com/)

~~~
kuisch
I'm familiar with Tripaya. As pointed out earlier, there are a few others with
a similar approach. There's no real network effect here, so I expect that 1)
there will be less of a winner-takes-all dynamic (i.e. room for more than 1
player) and 2) it won't be so much about who gets there first as about who
gets it right.

------
khalloud
Looks very cool. When do we expect to use it?

~~~
kuisch
Thank you - we're aiming for the end of April!

