Subscription travel, the future?
Points and affiliate programs as we know them have been left behind when talking about customer loyalty in travel tourism, to give way to a model of subscription travel which is already beginning to bear its first fruits in countries like United States and United Kingdom.
Thanks to different companies that have emerged in recent years, a new way to travel promises to settle in our lives during this next decade. We are more than used to paying a certain fee each month for having and having access to leisure and entertainment services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime, HBO, Spotify , among others. Now, **why not do the same with the way we travel? **
A la carte destinations in which you will only have to worry about pay a monthly subscription to enjoy certain trips per year, alone or with the companions that you decide. The rest are taken care of by travel subscription companies who have recognized here a market niche that needs to be exploited as soon as possible.
What if we forget to organize our trips?
NEVER SEEN UNTIL NOW: SUBSCRIBE AND TRAVEL
Not long ago this model has been installed in our lives and it could be said that it is now -with the change of the millennium- when truly the sector is growing and is becoming known . If we look back we will only have to go to the United Kingdom, specifically to the year 2018, to discover how it came about. BeRightBack (BRB) the world's first travel subscription company.
"By £49.99 per month on our plan go solo for one person (or £89.99 per Go Together for two people) BRB customers get 3 surprise trips a year to European destinations ”, indicates Gregory Geny, co-founder and CEO of BeRightBack a Traveler.es . In this way it is as if each trip cost a total of 200 euros with accommodation and flights included , and all this without having to book months in advance to get the best possible price.
The method of operation is quite simple. Once subscribed to the website , just like what happens on Netflix when you log in for the first time, ask travel preferences of each client, from the preferred types of rest, the most desired cities, the closest airports and the flight schedules that most benefit each person. After, the BRB work team comes into play that investigates and selects the destination that fits perfectly with the needs and demands of each traveler.
“A month before your experience, we send them a postcard to reveal their destiny along with a personal handwritten note from our team with recommendations of things to do during your trip. Currently, we offer departures from the UK to more than 60 locations in Europe and all our getaways are 3 days and 2 nights”, says Gregory Geny.
And how did this initiative come about? The idea behind BRB blossoms from personal weaknesses and the realization that true innovation has yet to break through in the tourism industry. Gregory Geny, after traveling to different parts of the world throughout his 20s and 30s, realized that there was a need that had not yet been met.
The search engines , the increased bids and the irruption of social networks made the traveler's choice even more complicated. Thus appeared the feared FOBO (Fear of Better Options) what does it mean people's fear of not choosing between the best option , which causes indecision and anxiety to arise due to the large number of overinformation to which we are exposed daily . That is why Gregory based himself on two factors when undertaking this business project: time and money.
As for time, as Gregory states: “customers have to invest more time than ever to find the best possible destination”. On the money: “With dynamic prices driving the entire industry, the price of flights and hotels tend to increase the longer you wait to book or closer to your departure date. This means that customers often end up spending between 20% and 50% more on the same trip ”, he sentences.
This is how this experience arises. creating a fixed value proposition , the first in the travel industry. At the moment, it is only available in the United Kingdom, but its objectives for the year 2021 is begin its expansion throughout Europe.
But the BRB company has not been the only one to take the big step and bet on this subscription model when traveling. Platforms like inspired (United States) and Safari (United Kingdom), focused on accommodation reservations and focused on a luxury tourism , have burst onto the scene in recent months.
Maya Poulton and Joey Kotkins , after years working in the tourism and marketing sector for several large companies, decided to undertake and create the Safara portal with the intention of offer its clients luxury accommodation among a selection of more than 7000 options chosen by their own team.
“After logging into our website, you have to book the hotels you want, earning points on each booking and finally, using them to earn free rides (On average, members will earn at least $1,000 a year from free travel),” he tells Traveler.es. Maya Poulton, co-founder of Safara . The first reservation is as a test d and for free, but from that moment they have a rate of $195 annual subscription.
This company never work with hidden commissions , unlike other travel agencies or accommodation booking pages, which in some cases charge up to 30% more than the rate imposed by the hotel. In this way, they only charge that annual cost in exchange for customers remaining registered on their platform and 100% of commissions are returned to them in the form of points . So in the end it means savings for the luxury traveler who wants to rest in hotels or vacation homes with a high purchasing power.
Anyone in the world with Internet access (you can pay in dollars, euros or pounds) can benefit from this initiative which at the moment is only available within the field of accommodation as they are the ones with the highest commissions at present. "But Safara's long-term intention is to expand into other travel models and expand sectors," says Maya Poulton.
Subscription travel could be the future
WHY CAN THIS SUBSCRIPTION MODEL BE BENEFICIAL?
There are several factors that come into play. on this type of trip and that favor the satisfaction of the needs of each client. Although it is about a model that is not suitable for all types of travelers , is an option that should at least be valued and tested thanks to the benefits they entail be subscribed to this type of platform.
The organization and investment of time is one of them. “Many people prefer to have their trips and destinations organized, and in this case it's all about ease of travel. Furthermore, the fact of having a paid subscription it makes you need to feel that you are using it and therefore you are going to look more times for holes to do it. The mind is predisposed to 'take advantage' of what you are paying for . On the other hand, it is the ease of wanting to go on a getaway and make everything much more direct, you save management time”, tells Traveler.es Pepa Sánchez - psychologist, coach, trainer and creator of the portal Viajes Terapéuticos-.
Subscription travel could be the future
For example, platforms like BRB give you the possibility to do three surprise trips a year . This supposes test personal and psychological tools that can be seen as opportunities. In the words of Pepa Sánchez: “you have to plan with little time, sustain uncertainty, choose if once you know where you are going in the destination you want to let yourself go or look for things to do. The organization is left for the last moment so you have to solve and make decisions in a short time . you also learn to let go of control and accept things since in these occasions you do not make all the choices about your trip”.
must also talk about saving what does it mean pay a monthly fee from which we will see its fruits in the not too distant future. Putting ourselves in expert hands we won't have to worry about booking months in advance to find the best deals, but also paying monthly is a way to invest money and spend it little by little so that the inconveniences of high budgets around travel do not come later.
How many times has it happened to us that we have not been able to make that reservation to the desired destination because prices have risen at the last moment or we have not organized our budget correctly and now we do not have that money saved? “In the case of BRB, offering 3 trips a year for a fixed monthly rate of £49.99 not only helps customers save and organize for their trips, but also you also always know how much it will cost . This helps customers save a additional budget that can be spent at the destination ”, comments Gregory Geny.
Perhaps subscription travel is not for all types of travelers
IT IS NOT AN INITIATIVE THAT FITS WITH ALL TRAVELERS
It should be noted that this subscription model not suitable for all travelers . Potential customers are usually millennials and people belonging to generation Z who seek new experiences both in accommodation and in the destinations they want to visit and discover. They are usually young travelers who have to move to other parts of the world either for work reasons or who have the spirit wanderlust . They also invest -apart from some long trip- in stays of a short period of time different times of the year in which to visit destinations not too far away that involve getaways to recharge their batteries and get out of the tedious routine that they have a hard time accepting.
In the case of Safara, Maya Poulton is clear about her potential client: “ anyone who travels five or more times a year who wants to stay in luxury establishments different from what they are used to. We have discovered that our main members are the unmanaged Business Travelers, that is, people who book and spend their own trip and have to move for professional reasons”.
“They are people who like travel frequently , which usually they do not organize their trips and that they do not care as much about the destination as the fact of going on a trip itself . In the case of surprise trips, they will be open to new experiences”, says Pepa Sánchez.
If you are one of those who like to keep everything organized on your own , do long trips in which to invest more budget and leave room for improvisation in each of them, this subscription model may not be made for you. "With this there is a part of creativity when it comes to moving that is lost because parts of a limited supply. By paying a subscription you end up 'consuming' what they offer you without looking for additional proposals that generate extra costs . It becomes a serial consumer product , losing a part that the trip brings, which is the experience”, comments Pepa Sánchez from Viajes Terapéuticos.
Everything is to try it and decide if it is an initiative that works or not with the type of travelers that we are. Now the big question is... how long will it take for us to see subscription travel as one more option to turn to in terms of wanderlust gene begin to invite us -once again- to discover our next destination?