5 New Travel Startups Creating Solutions for Brands’ Digital Challenges

This week’s five startups look at challenges brands are addressing based on changing consumer behaviors. What to do about in-flight entertainment that may not be as entertaining as passengers would like? Where can consumers leave positive or constructive reviews of employees to help employers help them improve? And, how do brands sell travel insurance to travelers in a way that convincingly assures them that it’s a smart choice and safe bet? Read on to see how travel startups are adding their solutions to the mix.

In-flight VR creates virtual reality content for airlines’ in-flight entertainment systems.

>>SkiftTake: It’s still unclear if virtual reality will fit in with the close quarters of an aircraft cabin given the space that some virtual reality experiences require. It’s still an imaginative concept that plenty of airlines are surely clamoring to test out.

Clapy is a mobile app that lets hospitality workers create profiles for customers to leave reviews of workers. Employers can access the app and reward employees that get positive reviews.

>>SkiftTake: We doubt consumers will leave reviews of specific employees on Clapy versus using an established player such as TripAdvisor or Yelp. But the idea that there’s really no differentiated online product for consumers to praise employees, separate from reviewing an attraction or restaurant, for example, creates an opening. Since many hotels tout the importance of their staff in creating the guest experience they probably want to know what guests actually think about employees.

Groups360 is a marketplace for meeting planners that connects them to hoteliers and destination marketing organizations.

>>SkiftTake: Meetings and events means money for hotels and destination marketing organizations but in many cases the technology connecting all of these sectors is lacking and inefficient.

Pablow helps travel brands sell travel insurance to consumers.

>>SkiftTake: Travel brands need to get better at explaining the benefits of travel insurance and presenting all options in a clearer way.

CityKey is a B2B platform helping its hotel partners build custom branded interactive city guides to distribute to their guests. It then leverages the platform to sell exclusive VIP discounts for guests staying with its hotel partners.

>>SkiftTake: Hotels already want to be experience curators and suggest things to do for guests. This startup helps them build on their branding and lets their voices reach beyond the walls of their properties.

For all of our SkiftSeedlings collection, check out our archives here.