information are out there on the airlines’ websites and some random blogs, but not accessible when you’re thinking about booking your next flight—that’s where the gap lies.
X: What will airlinetickets.org provide that isn’t already easily available online? Airline reviews, tips and advice? How will this content be created? Through users? An in-house editorial staff? Both?
SP: We will be providing the basics—airline reviews, travel tips, and advice—however we’ll be extending beyond that. Airlinetickets.org will organize the information in a way that helps you make a more educated decision when booking your next flight.
Think of it as how Bill Shrink helps you with your personal finances and finding a cell phone provider, but for the travel industry. So based on what type of traveler you are, your date range, who you’re flying with, where you’re going, how often you travel, etc. we’ll help you book your next flight.
Content will be created with an editorial and development staff. Users may play a part, however that hasn’t been determined yet.
X: Why did you decide to have airportparking.org be a stand-alone site, rather than a service packaged within airlinetickets.org?
SP: It’s too complicated…not from the technology or sales process, but for users. We want to make it as simple as possible. When you’re for a looking for a flight, you get relevant information that helps you book the right flight for you and the same things goes when you’re trying to find a place to park your car.
X: What other airline/air travel services do you plan to offer through these sites?
SP: These two websites will remain focused on air travel and airport parking, however I plan to expand into hotels, vacations, and travel deals with different websites.
X: I noticed that all of these sites end in “.org”—are these non-profit sites? What’s the business model behind your venture?
SP: We are a for-profit business, the “.org” endings just happen to be a coincidence.
As of right now, the business model is to just create good informational sites. We’ll figure out the monetization strategies later on.
X: What do you plan to use the recently raised financing for specifically?
SP: Funding for developers and experienced writers to help us build out this platform.
X: How many staff do you have working for you at this time, if any? (If none, are you hiring? And what positions do you need to fill?)
SP: We don’t have any full-time staff right now other than me. We have a few contractors and we will be looking to hire a few writers and developers in the next few months.
X: The online travel space has been full of expansion and hiccups over the years—everyone seems to agree that all the information people need to search, discover, book, and organize their travel should be online and easy to access and use, but where companies have struggled is how to make this platform successful and financially stable. How do you see airlinetickets.org and airportparking.org fitting into this sector? What about these sites is revolutionary?
SP: We’re going to keep things very simple. The most revolutionary thing about our sites is going to be how easy it will be to compare dozens of factors that you think about when you travel—even ones you’re not aware of at the time of booking.
