Profile: Travel To Your Next Destination With 'Journy'
Some of the most memorable moments in an person’s life is during times of travel and experiencing the different cultures and places around the world. This extends to any activity traveler’s have always wanted to try out, food they’d wanted to consume, or even obtain valuable objects (or souvenirs) from the landmark that they want to keep for themselves or show to friends and/or family members.
In order to make those special memories, however, people would still have to plan their vacations way ahead of time so that their vacations won’t be scheduled in a haste fashion that may lead to unsatisfactory accommodations . That includes checking their calendars regularly to see if they have any events (work, school, or personal) already scheduled in the next few days/weeks/months/years, comparing the best prices for lodging and flights (arrival and departure), learning as much of the host country’s language as possible, and renewing their passports and/or visas as soon as possible.
Journy is a startup that provides personal travel planning services for individuals or groups, especially couples, who’d preferred to spend their vacation time without having the hassle of looking up the prices for lodging, flights, amenities, and preferred attractions. Upon signing up for Journy, members are allowed to have a free 15-20 minute consultation call with a Journy representative about any ideas of location(s) they want to go to, then they can pay the ‘Journy Lite’ $25 per travel day fee if they want to only a travel play or they can pay the ‘Journy Full’, $50 per travel day fee if they want to have the travel plan with reservations that have premium features such as having 2 additional rounds of trip revisions and booking restaurant reservations.
To make the vacation planning experience easy and quick, Journy members will complete a 2-minute questionnaire about how they’d like to travel so that Journy can plan a trip compatible for their preferences, have the opportunity to talk with the travel designer via email/chat who provides them with a draft itinerary of their vacation plan based on their likes and dislikes, and after that, the final itinerary that has bookings and restaurant reservations will be sent to the members in the Journy iPhone app or in a PDF file. It’s based on a process that ensures that the expected travelers will have a relaxing time with their travel planning knowing that they have said a lot of money from planning their trips by themselves.
The ‘itinerary request’ on Journy’s website includes a list of 75+ destinations around the world for the members to choose from such as New York, Paris, and Tokyo. After choosing the preferred city, the website will ask the expected traveler if they had already settled on the dates for their vacation and then it’ll conduct the next steps of the vacation plan by finding the appropriate lodging, restaurants, and attractions that they can choose from based on the planned duration of their vacation time.
Journy co-founders Leiti Hsu and Susan Ho explained in an article written in Mashable that the idea for Journy came during Ho’s trip to Buenos Aires that was planned at the last minute. Ho’s hasty trip planning came at a price as she didn’t took enough time to conduct research on Argentinian culture, the history of Buenos Aires, the authentic experiences that she should’ve tried out, and choosing lodging/restaurant options that would’ve also saved her a lot of money.
Megan Rose Dickey, a writer from TechCrunch, had used Journy to plan her trip to Berlin with her mother and noted that by using Journy’s efficient and reliable travel planning services, their trip was an easy and relaxing process in which they got the chance to visit the sights that they always wanted to see such as Checkpoint Charlie and the eastern side of the now-demolished Berlin Wall. The travel planner for her and her mother’s trip had given the recommendations on which locations they are recommended to visit based on certain days during their trip and also detailing the activities they should participate in if they want to have an authentic experience of German culture.
One aspect that stands out for Journy is that the startups are partnered with locals from the restaurant, hospitality, tourism and various industries of the cities listed on Journy’s travel planning services who assist Journy with the recommendations it can provide to the members who are planning to visit those cities. Having recommendations from locals who know the ins and outs of the entire city will not only help make Journy’s job of planning vacations easy and less time-consuming but will also indirectly ensure that the travelers will have a memorable time without worrying about where they will eat, drink, attend, or visit when they’re traveling, as well as not worrying about the amount of money they will spend.
Planning for a long-deserved vacation isn’t always easy and making plans alone knowing that the vacation is going to occur in a few days or weeks will unlikely result in a favorable experience for the traveler, especially if those travelers are visiting a country that doesn’t have English as an official language nor having the knowledge of cultural norms and values. Journy is a startup that is devoted to helping travelers have an amazing experience with their trips by providing them the necessary tips and assistance that will help them be prepared with what they’ll experience in the cities they’ll be in and a positive experience may result in those same travelers deciding to use Journy’s services again if they plan for another trip.