US start-up Tripeedo plans UK launch

US start-up Tripeedo, which combines powerful travel search technology and social media, is planning a UK version of the site.

The service, due to launch in the US on Monday, aims to make travel searches faster and more user-friendly by removing drop-down menus and tick boxes and replacing them with a single bar to enter trip details. It aims to launch in the UK within months.

Tripeedo searches airline sites, online travel agencies (OTAs) and metasearch sites allowing consumers to compare trips and find deals which can then be booked on the supplier’s site.

Users can tick the sites they want to search, although Tripeedo has a number of default sites already ticked based on user testing. Each site is opened in a different window.

Co-founder Andrew Dudley said Tripeedo was not a metasearch site, suggesting there are enough people already doing that. “We allow for quick comparisons of metasearch sites, airlines and OTAs – so it’s metasearch on top of that. It’s a single point to launch searches to different sites, reducing a process that takes a long time to a few minutes.”

The social feature within the site is integrated with Facebook Connect so users can share itineraries with friends and see who lives in the destination they are visiting.

Dudley said the site is among the first to offer such integration and he hopes Tripeedo will spread virally via Facebook. “We didn’t want to create another network because people don’t want multiple accounts,” he said. “We think it provides added value because it’s something people will want to do. We are going to add more social features.”

Tripeedo has been developed using seed funding of less than US$100,000 and Dudley said the start-up was already generating revenue.

A white label version of the service is available for businesses. The site is the travel vertical of Wundrbar – a quick search application.