Split the Cost of Travel Using VeryUs

Matt helps travelers who share common event interests to rent vacation homes together by splitting the cost as a social group trip.  In today’s travel startup feature, we showcase Matt Heady from our Miami Travel Massive Chapter and Founder/CEO of VeryUs.

What is your brand about? Where is it based?

VeryUs isn’t about you, it’s not about me. It’s about us, meaning “we” as a group get to share together various properties and chat about similar interests in social travel accommodations. We’re located in Naples, FL.

Who is your brand for?

Vacation Rental Owners and Agencies, and Social Group Travelers.

Is there a unique story of how it came to be?

After trying to plan a group vacation with friends, suddenly realizing that we had all started families of our own, it became too difficult to coordinate our friends together to afford luxury vacation rentals. I then asked myself if I was willing to share a luxury vacation home with people who had similar interests to attend events together as a group to pay a single room rate and save money.

How is your brand disrupting the travel scene?

We’re helping property managers increase occupancy during low season by offering social group reservations for accepting partial bookings,. VeryUs is like Airbnb, but for groups that caters to the traditional property manager who wants more business and access to the sharing economy traveler as a major value-add to their bottom line.

How is your brand changing the future of the industry or helping to make travel better?

VeryUs connects travelers who share similar interests, attend events and experience premium vacation accommodations for the price of a room vs paying for the entire home. Property owners can collect more per room based on the traveler savings during events and peak season, while accepting partial reservations for social trips. This allows owners the ability to book a greater number of room nights without being forced into hit or miss reservations.

Do you have any tips for finding and securing investors or gaining traction in the industry?

Traction trumps everything, and due to traction being the ruler of them all, nothing beats flat out hustle and hard work. The best advice for gaining traction is to focus on 3 core test areas within the range of exposure from the likes of blogs, radio, press, advertising, social media, etc. and test no more than 3 possible channels at any given time. Once the winner of those 3 is determined, then go all-in on the winner of that group and drive until the sun goes down until it’s completely exhausted and start the process over again.

How will the way consumers travel change in the future?

The six degrees of separation around knowing travelers is becoming more and more of a reality with the likes of social media and understanding traveler interests and personalization. There will be a shorter gap between hosts understanding the needs of travelers and providing select accommodations that are tailored to each traveler’s unique profile, giving a more rewarding and customized experience.

The Travel Start-Up is a monthly series that profiles unique online travel start-ups in the Travel Massive community around the world. If you’re interested in learning more about Matt Heady or VeryUs, visit them on Travel Massive.