Love this. Well done! I'm curious how you plan to build reputation/trust for guides? I feel like there's a lot of emotional friction between seeing an interesting guide listing and actually making a booking. Tactically that probably means user reviews? How do you entice early adopters to book and experience the adventure so that they can leave reviews for more risk-averse users in the future? Are there other review sources you can scrape/leverage in the interim before you've built up an inventory of user reviews? ... Also, any safety assurances for users?
@istanb4u The app has both a guide and adventure review system that is triggered after an adventure is completed. It allows the guide and adventurer to give a 1-5 star rating as well as a text rating. One of the things we did very early on is user test what makes an app like this foster trust and the number one thing users gave us feedback on is competitors in this space and even tripadvisor/yelp focuses on the company experience as a whole and not just the individual guide and or experience. That allowed us to build something tailored to fostering trust for guides and adventures. We've found 3rd party reviews to be inadequate and generally nonexistent which is a huge opportunity for us.
We also have an extensive vetting process as mentioned above but also includes us verifying guides on the credentials in this space. For example being AMGA certified and having a 3rd party verify that for the guide allows the adventurer to feel more safe. There is also realtime in app chat connecting the user directly to Hinterlands but also to the guide so they can ask questions about the adventure, if its safe for them, gear the need to bring or any other questions they may have before they head out on their adventure.
Safety and trust for both guides and adventurers is a top priority for us and we take it seriously. This isn't an urban tour or a duck boat tour people are going on so having those safety measures is imperative for our guides to be successful and adventurers to have fun.
@basche42 we only work with certified/permitted guides, they all the best of the best and insured. On top of that we have added a 2nd layer of insurance just in case (working on getting optional Global Rescue insurance for winter). We have a pretty strict on-boarding process to ensure safety on the platform. No experience is needed. Each trip will tell you the level of difficulty, and we have in-app chat so you can ask the guides any question you like.
First off, thanks so much to @realmandan for hunting us!
I’m the Head of Product over at Hinterlands, a two sided marketplace for adventurous people to discover and book unique experiences guided by professionals. On the other side, we help qualified guides build their businesses by allowing them to market and manage their adventures. We just launched to the public August 1st and we are live on iOS and Web.
Our heads are down improving existing features as well as brainstorming on new features involving things like more robust chat functionality, an AI bot, supply management tools and other fun solutions to existing problems in the adventure world.
All feedback is welcome and I’m here to answer any questions you folks might have.
Also, for the people that are hesitant to download the app or check the site, take a peak at our awesome video we put together that explains what we are all about! - http://a.gohinterlands.com/
@davidwigder been really fun to see this evolve, I'm excited to take my first tour when my sister visits and we do some climbing! Curious about the roll-out plan, are you focusing by geo, type of activity, something else?
@realmandan Thanks dan! We are mostly focused on Geo right now. We are live in Aspen, Denver and New York with a lot more areas to come especially with winter approaching. Our strategy is focused on getting supply to a certain point before launching in new territories.
@dtrinh Thanks Danny! We agree experiences are way more important. So.. what better way to spread the message than to build a company around that idea. Let us know if you have any specific locations you're interested in.
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Really like the idea behind this. Look forward to when Hinterlands makes it to Europe. Signed up to the news letter so looking forward to the updates to come!!
@anthony_stylianou We will be consistently sending out announcements for each new territory we are covering so stay tuned! Europe is definitely on our roadmap.
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