Adventure.com Failed But What Did It Do Right and Wrong?
Photo Credit: Adventure.com sought to build a peer-to-peer tours and activities marketplace, but now features community-sourced photos, videos, and first-person narratives as it sits in maintenance mode. Adventure.com
Skift Take
Adventure.com gambled on charging a 20 percent fee to guides, which was considerably higher than the going rate. Unanswered is whether the peer to peer concept in tours and activities really is viable on a large-scale basis.
Editor's Note: Travis Snelling is the co-founder of Adventure.com. This post originally appeared on Medium and we are reprinting it, with his permission, to highlight the complexities of beginning and operating a tours and activities startup.
"So, what happened to Adventure.com, anyway?” is a question I get asked regularly. Well, we failed.
I don’t talk about it much — I’d rather internalize our successes and mistakes and move on to the next challenge — but I’m hoping someone out there might benefit from the insights of why a startup with a seemingly great idea, talented team and good execution just couldn’t break through and make it work. Plus I think it’ll be cathartic for me to get closure on this chapter in my life. So here goes.
Background
Adventure.com was a peer-to-peer marketplace for tours and activities. Kinda like the Airbnb of adventure, if I had to make a comparison. People could find and book unique experiences directly with vetted tour gui
