If you’re anything like my friends and me, keeping track of who is where and when they’re there is as hard as getting up in the morning without coffee (AKA very hard). But thanks to two Harvard grads, your life has just become easier with a new social travel website called gtrot (yes, all lowercase). Co-founders Robert Corty and Zachary Smith officially launched the website three weeks ago to let users book and share travel plans.
The most prominent feature of gtrot is the sharing function, which essentially socializes travel and allows users to see where and when people in their network are traveling. This is made super easy by the integration of Facebook Connect, so users are able to import their existing social network rather than starting from scratch.
Soon you will be able to book hotels, hostels, flights and cabs on the website in addition to finding shared rides. The sharing and booking features create what Smith calls “a virtuous circle” that allows users not only to book travel, but to share this information with a social network.
Gtrot’s userbase is currently at about 1,000 accounts, with most of those coming from Harvard. (Remind you of Facebook?) Of those 1,000 users, 1,200 trips are being shared. Users are also able to share past trips or past cities visited in addition to current or future trips.
Unlike Tripit that caters to business and professional travelers, gtrot allows users to communicate and see where their network is, instead of focusing on the itinerary management features that Tripit does. Gtrot targets the college demographic and leverages the Facebook sharing culture.
Initially, gtrot was conceived as a cab sharing tool for a class project, but after seeing the need and specific niche market for the service, gtrot’s creators expanded it to incorporate a social function which is now the main draw of the website. Gtrot entered the I3 business plan competition at Harvard and beat out over 50 other teams to take the top prize of $15,000. Now, the company’s funding is up to $65,000 after receiving an additional $50,000 from angel investors.
I’ve logged in to take a peek, and before I did anything, gtrot told me which of my Facebook friends are using the service, and where in the world they currently are. As a college student, this is incredibly valuable; I have friends all over the country and many outside the country as well.
Adding more trickiness to the travel mix are students who study abroad or grads who catch the gypsy bug. The inherently social aspect of traveling becomes easier with gtrot. Users can even leverage gtrot to connect with mutual friends who happen to be in the same location. If you’re curious how social travel works, you can also check out their internal blog with posts from college travelers from around the world.
Given the practicality of the service and the ease of adoption, it seems likely that gtrot will catch like wildfire in 2010. If you’re not using gtrot then you’re not optimizing your travel experience.
Make sure you and your friends get on gtrot in time for Spring Break. By then they’ll have the hotel, hostel, flight, and cab booking features hot so you can trot.
Loving gtrot’s potential? Check out how you can get involved. You can also follow the gtrot team on Twitter: @gtrot
Editor's Note: Sarah Merion is the newest contributor to BostInnovation. Please join me in welcoming her, and look for more articles from her in the coming weeks and months!
