Sally Broom

Sally Broom, founder of Tripbod  

Tripbod connects travellers to trusted local contacts, online, in the places they want to visit.

‘Tripbod' helps the traveller plan their trip using the most up to date, personalised local knowledge available anywhere.

Tripbod is the relaunch of Your Safe Planet, a company founded in 2007 which connected travellers to local people. Through Your Safe Planet, we found that whereas the concept was brilliantly received by the travel industry, the market was not ready for such a new approach to travel. So Tripbod now uses online technology and a travel-orientated brand to deliver the same core service.

With Tripbod, personalized, local, up-to-date information is delivered through a private planning page where the traveller can connect with the Tripbod via messaging and Skype. The traveller tells the Tripbod what they want from their trip and the Tripbod creates a personalized itinerary with the help of a calendar and annotated Google map.

I developed the idea as I realized that travellers are regularly frustrated with what is on offer. To find exactly what you need is difficult and time consuming and requires searching through masses of generic or open source information. Holidays are very precious to people and they want to get it right from the beginning. I observed that travellers tend to adapt to fit the mould the industry sets, rather than getting the holiday that suits them. I thought about my most successful holidays and decided that it's all about having that personal connection, someone to point you in the right direction.

In the future we want to become the independent traveller's most trusted friend. By charging a fee to the travellers, we can provide impartial advice from trusted local experts. This means that we can always protect the traveller's interests. We would like to be able to offer travellers not just the information they need but also the travel product that they need.

Striding Out has been vital to my personal development and the growth of Tripbod. I have taken full advantage of the great mentoring, fantastic networking and training sessions that Striding Out has to offer! When you're a small business, it's so encouraging to feel part of something bigger.

To thank Striding Out for their support, we would like to offer a discount for Tripbod until October 2009. Book using code STRIDINGOUT to receive your 20% off.