Yonderbound founders aim to shake up online travel booking industry

Yonderbound founders aim to shake up online travel booking industry

Three former MSC Cruises executives are among four women behind a new global online travel marketplace.

Three former MSC Cruises executives are among four women behind a new global online travel marketplace.

Community website Yonderbound’s founders boast more than 30 combined years of travel and tourism experience.

They claim the socially shareable trip-planning tool was created to “shake up” the online travel booking industry with an inventory of more than 380,000 hotels.

Monaco-based Yonderbound allows users to custom-build a personal ‘Yonderbox’ planning tool – similar to a scrapbook – that helps them plan their holidays.

Users can build a Yonderbox for each trip they are planning, adding photos, bookmarking their favorite hotels, adding notes and collecting links to attractions or events.

Accessible from mobile devices, Yonderbound also allows users to share their Yonderboxes on Facebook and allows them to make recommendations.

Founder and chief executive Barbara Muckermann held marketing roles at MSC Cruises, Norwegian Cruise Line and Silversea Cruises, and most recently served as a senior advisor for global communications at Cruise Lines International Association.

Chief product officer Barbara Biffi is a former marketing vice president for Silversea and joined Muckermann at MSC Cruises, where she was in charge of digital marketing.

Strategy vice president Lauren Serrano was in charge of trade marketing at Carnival Cruise Lines and MSC Cruises.

Fourth founder Patrizia Iantorno worked for the South African Tourism Board and Nestlé.

Muckermann said: “We founded Yonderbound with the belief that everyone has the right to travel, and a mission to reduce the barriers of travel so that people can see more of the world.

“As a company, we will do everything in our power to make that happen, to the point of forgoing advertising and paid media to reinvest portions of our profits to fund trips for our customers.”

Biffi said: “Yonderbound is designed for constant evolution, relying on the power of its community to continue to grow and define the future of the company.”

“You are free to decide where you want to go, with no immediate pressure to book, allowing you to take the time you need to decide and build your dream trip at your own pace.”