**This is part of our series highlighting startups who share our mission of trying to make people’s lives just a little easier**
It’s the post-holiday season and a lot of us are probably still slogging back to work and struggling to return to a regular day-to-day schedule. Many of us have been traveling to see family, to escape the weather, or to take advantage of accrued holiday hours to spend a few days near the beach.
I bet some of you are wishing you could go BACK to that wonderful, far-away place, but I bet most of you are glad you don’t have to endure those long airport lines, gas station bathroom stops, or that awkward moment when security pulls you aside and has to check your socks (true story).
Because the truth of the matter is that within the travel industry, there is a lot of room for improvements. And even more specifically, there is a lot of room for enhanced customer experience within the hotel industry.
This is where Arrivedo comes in—a startup that is revolutionizing the way people travel and experience hotels. If you’ve ever had an unpleasant experience while traveling because of stress, boredom, or lack of information, then you’ll want to check this company out.
See it’s hard enough having to get up at 4 AM and drive all the way to your destination, so when you have to deal with strange beds, new faces, and that cracked wheel on your suitcase making a horrendous noise across the pavement….you end up wishing you had just stayed home in your PJ’s with your cat.
Why Arrivedo? Because a better hotel experience can transform the way you travel.
Approximately 35% of American families had plans to take a trip during 2017, with 30% of those families saying they planned on taking three or more trips. That’s a lot of people stopping in completely unfamiliar towns and sleeping in hotels with unfamiliar faces—which, in the end, makes for a lot of moments of travel discomfort.
Imagine the difference between staying at a hotel in a city where you’re pretty sure the only breakfast restaurant is McDonald’s, versus staying at your best friend’s house where she recommends her top five favorite coffee shops that you can visit for a fresh cinnamon roll and locally roasted coffee.
See the difference? One option involves frustrated Google searches on your phone while the other involves a moment of pure bliss as you take a bite of warm and cinnamon-y bread. It’s the difference between being a stranger and feeling like a “local” that really makes or breaks your travel experience.
This is the current problem for the hotel industry: making guests feel at home when, in reality, they’re far away from home.
It’s a problem that hotels are forever trying to remedy, and a competition that hotels have recently been losing with the rise of popularity in the Airbnb business.
Airbnb boasts a “local experience” because instead of a corporate building with busy employees, you’re staying in the home of a city local who can give you a personal tour of the area.
Hotels have been taking a big hit as more and more travelers are opting for an Airbnb instead in order to get that personalized, “at home” experience. A study conducted in 2015 showed that the lodging industry of New York had a negative impact of $2.1 billion because of the impact of Airbnb, and further showed $450 million of loss in direct revenues for hotels due to Airbnb annually.
But since the rise of Airbnb, Arrivedo has been launching an attack to better the name of the hotel industry and improve the way that travelers search, book, and enjoy their stay.
Get to Know Arrivedo
Arrivedo is a technological startup company with the goal of producing one “Neighborhood Guide” per hotel in the world. It was dreamed up by one of its co-founders, Alonso Franco, who wanted to create a way for hotels to connect with travelers in a way that focused on the communication and hospitality of a local. The company is composed of a dozen entrepreneurs who combine their strengths and skills to tackle the problems that are confronting the hotel industry. Their website serves as a platform to connect travelers to hotels—no matter where the traveler’s destination is.
Not only can you connect with hotels, but you can access a mine of information about the area you’re visiting. A hotel’s Neighborhood Guide can set you up for endless hours spent roaming the city or venturing into lesser-known spots. You get all the experiences of a local, all in one place.
The Neighborhood Guide
So what’s a Neighborhood Guide, and what role does it play in Arrivedo’s mission?
For every hotel in the world, Arrivedo plans on crafting a local guide that highlights restaurants, activities, maps, helpful tips, and city events within the hotel’s area—a “neighborhood” guide, because it enables travelers to get to know the neighborhood where they are staying. It gives visitors vital information that they would normally get if they were, say, staying at their grandma’s.
Where does this local knowledge come from?
Arrivedo’s team of writers collaborates with each hotel to include the best local events and information for a Neighborhood Guide.
In essence, travelers get to experience local cultures and have that “at home” vibe even when they are away. No longer do they have to feel like strangers at a hotel surrounded by unknown people and places, but instead, they can form meaningful connections as they travel.
Travel Like a Local
So maybe you’re taking a trip to Los Angeles, California and you don’t have any friends or family staying there but still want to get that “local” experience. Sometimes it’s hard to walk into establishments and get that information because it’s not always easy to immediately connect with strangers and, even then, sometimes you get the wrong directions or important details are miscommunicated.
Arrivedo presents a solution to that problem in the way that their Neighborhood Guides are made available so that travelers can be connected to their hotels and set up from the start for successfully living like a local. You can access clearly-written maps, extensive lists of the top places to grab coffee or a slice of pizza, find recommendations for the best night-life spots, and be in-the-know for important local celebrations or events.
How it Works
1. If you know your destination, go to Arrivedo’s website and type the name of the city into the search bar. This will pull up results for different hotels, bed-and-breakfasts, and hostels in the area.
2. Click on a hotel and check out its Neighborhood Guide. It will list places to visit and things to do that are nearby, as well as offer helpful tips about traveling within the city.
3. If you’re ready to book a room, all you have to do is click on the hotel name! You’ll be taken to a different page specifically for booking.
Arrivedo is a platform for all the information you need to transform your travels.
The desire of Arrivedo’s creators is to bridge the gap between “traveler” and “local,” and provide a unique platform to revolutionize the way we travel.
This is a startup company that we’ll want to keep an eye on over the next few years. With their team of writers reaching out to hotels across the world, perhaps soon our unpleasant travel experiences will be nothing more than faded memories.
And I bet that even though the holidays just ended, some of you are already itching to plan a weekend getaway, leave your cat, and explore a new place with the help of a Neighborhood Guide.