For Subscribers

Get Out of Town With Wanderfly This New York-based travel inspiration service offers recommendations that can send users packing.

By Michelle Juergen

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

2011 Trends
Decision Profile

Wanderfly
More than 4 million trip recs in 1,400 cities

More on Decision

Travel agents, your days are numbered. Globetrotters are increasingly forgoing brick-and-mortar agencies in favor of the internet to seek out destination spots: This year, the proportion of travelers who planned trips online grew to 82 percent, and 58 percent of trips were booked online, according to a September report by research firm IBISWorld.

Even getting suggestions for where to go is being outsourced to the online crowd: "Before, people would go to the travel agent and … get that personalized recommendation," says IBISWorld senior industry analyst Nima Samadi. "With people increasingly booking online, they don't really have that option, so that's where recommendation services fill the void. You can use other people's aggregated opinions to figure out what the inside track is."

Up in the air: Evan Schneyer of Wanderfly.
Up in the air: Evan Schneyer of Wanderfly.
Photo© David Johnson

One such service nudging its way into the shifting industry is New York-based travel inspiration and recommendation site Wanderfly. Launched in October 2010, Wanderfly aims to streamline the "Where should I go?" process by offering users a visual recommendation experience based on input factors like interests, budget, trip length and other travel details.

"If you think about the other options like Orbitz and Expedia and Kayak, and even some of the more planning-oriented ones like TripAdvisor or Lonely Planet, you have to know a lot about what you're looking for," says Wanderfly co-founder and CEO Evan Schneyer. "We wanted to flip that on its head and have an open-ended search so you can say, 'I want this kind of experience, here's my budget, start giving me ideas.'"

Related: 10 Hot Startup Sectors for New Business Ideas in 2012

And it's working: More than 4 million trip recommendations covering more than 1,400 cities have been provided to users in 217 different countries. The team has expanded from four co-founders to a staff of 12, and the company now has more than 30 partnerships with brands like Mint.com, History channel and Havaianas. Early this year, Wanderfly raised $1 million in funding from Charles River Ventures, Jason Calacanis, StartupAngel, James Bailey, Roger Dickey and other angel investors. And recently the company's technology was integrated across about 1,000 travel-related pages of The New York Times online.

To stay fresh in the space, Wanderfly has focused on providing quality with its quantity. "What we've grown on to date is about the user experience and giving people a fresh way to discover things in a category that is otherwise very cluttered with too much information too soon," Schneyer says. "We knew it was going to be crucial to combine this fun, engaging user experience with something that actually really works under the hood."

The startup will delve deeper into the user experience in 2012 with a site relaunch that will include more social functionality and user-generated content, like suggestions of things to do within cities and user-to-user recommendations. The goal is to multiply the content by 50 to 100 times what Wanderfly has now, says co-founder and director of marketing Christy Liu.

Want to be an Entrepreneur Leadership Network contributor? Apply now to join.

Buying / Investing in Business

Former Zillow Execs Target $1.3T Market

Co-ownership is creating big opportunities for entrepreneurs.

Business Ideas

70 Small Business Ideas to Start in 2025

We put together a list of the best, most profitable small business ideas for entrepreneurs to pursue in 2025.

Leadership

I Treated My Employees Like Friends — and It Backfired. Here's How You Can Avoid the Same Mistake.

Building lasting friendships with employees is difficult. Boundaries help you maintain authority and build strong relationships.

Business News

These 5 States Have the Most Affordable Housing, According to a New Report

U.S. News & World Report's latest rankings found the top five states with the most housing affordability.

Business News

Elizabeth Holmes' Partner Raises Millions for New Blood Test Diagnostics Startup: 'We've Learned From Her Company's Mistakes'

The startup insists it isn't Theranos 2.0 and that Holmes, who's serving a prison sentence after being convicted of fraud, "has no role."

Business News

'They're the Backbone:' Walgreens Says Using Robots to Fill Prescriptions Helped It Save $500 Million. Here's How.

Walgreens says its robot-assisted centers fill 16 million prescriptions a month.