Tripology Shuts Down, Seeks New Financing
- Feb 03, 2010
- By: George Dooley
- TravelAgentCentral
Tripology, the lead generating company widely used by travel agents and suppliers, has announced that it has stopped accepting travel agent payment, terminated staff and is looking for a new investor.
In a brief statement online the company said, “agents may continue to buy leads using any existing paid and free credits they have on file with Tripology.”
John Peters, president and CEO of Tripology, confirmed the action to Travel Agent and said that he was aggressively seeking investors for the company.
Tripology’s statement in full:
Despite achieving one of our best revenue months in January of 2010 and enjoying months of unit-economic profitability, our newest investor, very late last week, indicated they intended not to continue to fund the company as agreed in December 2009 (as indicated in a press release on the company website on December 2, 2009.) Visit www.tripology.com/consumer/news for a listing of all our press releases.
As such, Tripology immediately stopped accepting travel agent payment for lead credits, terminated the Tripology staff and actively started looking for a new investor and/or strategic partner.
Tripology, a free service for consumers, has developed a community of over 13,800 travel specialists and has processed over 130,000 trip requests from online travelers since launch in 2007.
In the next few days, while the company looks to secure a new investor, agents may continue to buy leads using any existing paid and free credits they have on file with Tripology. Further announcements will be made as developments occur.
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Comments 1-8 of 8
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Steve Long (FEBRUARY 07, 2010)
Sorry, but Nancy and Jimmy seem to be obvious Tripology company "shills".
If these agents were so good at what they do, and in fact close leads at the extremely suspect rates of 10-20% (Nancy) or 44% (Jimmy); then they would have no need to buy the grossly overpriced leads from Tripology.
They would be running their own lead generation campaigns with a per lead cost of 80-90% less.
For example Google adwords for highly competitive travel keywords can be bought for $1-$5 each versus the $15-$25 Tripology charges, times 3 agents.
So basically Tripology is making the lead they bought for $1-$5 into a $45-$75 profit. Great business model for them... but not so good ofor agents... especially super agents claiming to close 10-20-44% of their leads.
It just seems too good to be true. -
Nancy Cox (FEBRUARY 05, 2010)
No company is all things for all people. I have been making money since 10/2008 with clients from Trip. I am on track this year to make more money than ever.
Yes there were some crazy leads but who has not had crazy clients.If you used it long enough you figured out how to close 10-20% of leads bought. I think a $7000 honeymoon was worth a $5 lead. -
Jimmy Campbell (FEBRUARY 04, 2010)
I read Matt, Dennis and Richs' comments and wondered if we lived on the same planet. I have purchased 160 leads over 16 months and booked nearly 70.
My concern was that Tripology was not charging enough for the value I found with the leads I purchased.
Tripology is a great product and well presented.
Hopefully a new invesor will see the vaue I do. -
Don Bourassa (FEBRUARY 04, 2010)
There is no doubt that Tripology is a great product for Tvl Agents. I've picked up some great customers from being a Member agent.There has been some slow periods where Tripolgy has filled the void and provided me additional revenues.
Perhaps they need to hear from those voices that are unhappy with their service. CONSTRUCTIVE criticism goes a long way. I hope they make a strong come-back. -
Adrienne Sasson (FEBRUARY 04, 2010)
I was very disappointed when I received an email from John Peters announcing they had lost their investor. Tripology was had much potential especially with the addition of agent blogs and special packages agents were able to promote.
Additionally the fact they were attracting travel partners to offset the cost of the leads if the lead was booked through the partner was novel. Many were suppliers I used so it was an easy choice to book through them.
Sorry to see a good partner go. -
Dennis Hubbs, CTC/MCC/DTP (FEBRUARY 04, 2010)
No loss here. The crap they supplied were bottom-feeding lookers/dreamers and no matter how I edited my profile, I still got improperly screened junk. I am sorry they were involved with Vacation.com!
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Rich Whitaker (FEBRUARY 04, 2010)
overpriced leads? yes. novel idea? yes. i believe they've touched on something here ... i know of some travel agents who really made it work. http://richwhitaker.com/2010/02/tripology-closing-operations/
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Matt Miller (FEBRUARY 04, 2010)
Good riddance. Over priced leads. Over bearing CEO.
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