National Parks Pass - Another Way to Stretch a Dollar

The financial crisis, the housing crisis and the jobs crisis have made things very tough over the last 18 months for many families. Most people have to figure out how to do more, with less income, while still dealing with general instability. That said, life does not stop; people still have to find something to do to fill their weekends and vacations. The trick is figuring out something that will not break the bank, in addition to finding inexpensive ways to travel or lodge. My suggestion; visit the National Parks and Monuments of the United States. That is exactly what I did with my family over Spring Break this year.

We decided to take a week and visit the Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon and Zion Canyon; called the Canyon Loop by some, as you can visit all three by driving in a big circle. While doing our research we discovered that the entrance fee for all of the parks was about $25 per vehicle. Doing some quick Math, we figured out that we could spend another $5 ($80 total) and get an annual pass for all 462 National Parks and Monuments in the country. Not only was this a no-brainer, for this one week trip, it really makes sense for everyone to do. Consider this; many of us live within an hour of at least 1 National Park or Monument.

With 52 weekends in a year, traveling an hour or two is nothing when trying to entertain the kids, or impress a person you just started dating. Now add, at least, 2 weeks of vacation and a number of national holidays each year, and most of us have the chance to drive the few hours it would take to reach far more than 3 parks or monuments in a year. When you consider dinner and a movie is going to run you at least $40, an annual pass to see some of the most amazing things on the planet for $80 is a drop in the bucket.

We started our trip at the Grand Canyon, looped up to Bryce for two days, and came back to finish in Zion. We flew to Las Vegas where we rented a van to start the first leg of our trip and spent the next week driving the Canyon Loop to all three parks. During the 7 days and 15 hours of driving, we came within an hour of 7 additional National Parks and Monuments that our annual pass would have gotten us access to. Take a look at Google Maps the next time you are planning a vacation, I am sure your route will take you within a stone’s throw of a few parks yourself.

The America the Beautiful National Park Pass is very easy to obtain. You can order it on-line at this link: http://store.usgs.gov/pass/index.html. Or, to make sure you squeeze every day out of your pass, you can pick one up at the entrance of the first park you visit. In addition to the America the Beautiful Pass, there is also a great deal for seniors. For just $10, seniors (age 62 and older) can obtain the America the Beautiful Senior Pass. This is a lifetime pass for all National Parks and Monuments. My father in law has this pass and uses it often.

What does the pass get you? In addition to covering the park entrance, there are a number of additional benefits the pass offers. Some of these benefits include Ranger Walks, Special Park Shows, Park Museums and access to park trams and busses which we used in Zion. The Pass is good for 3 adults (related or not) in areas that require a per person fee, and will get 2 motorcycles into the park of your choice. The pass gains you access to federal lands run by the following agencies:

• Bureau of Land Management http://www.blm.gov
• Bureau of Reclamation http://www.usbr.gov
• Fish & Wildlife Service http://www.fws.gov
• USDA Forest Service http://www.fs.fed.us
• National Park Service http://www.nps.gov
• Federal Recreation lands http://www.recreation.gov
• National Atlas (lands maps) http://www.nationalatlas.gov/printable.html#fedlands

Not only is the National Parks pass a great deal for individuals and families, it is a great way to chip in and help keep these parks open for continued enjoyment. These rough economic times that are affecting each of us are also affecting these beautiful parks. We cannot trust our politicians to keep these places open during rough times. However, the purchase of a National Parks Pass by a few of us can help to guarantee continued enjoyment of these beautiful places for all of us. Personally, I plan on using my annual pass to visit Pinnacles National Park and Yosemite before my year ends. I really hope you will consider one also.

Darrin Underwood
Contributor
Sherpa Travel Exchange

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$3 Diet Cokes and Volcanoes... and Government Regulation

The recent, and largely unpronounceable, Icelandic volcano eruption got me thinking about just how wacky the airline business has become. True, commercial airlines have perhaps the most unattractive business model of them all. I mean, you have to contend with airplanes that cost millions of dollars a month to lease, fluctuating fuel prices, huge labor costs, unions, disgruntled employees, and a customer base that's almost always in a hurry. That's a recipe for unhappy customers. Why anyone would want to start a commercial airline is beyond me (I'm looking at you Jet Blue).  The risk vs. reward just isn't there.


Maybe their backwards business model makes it hard for the airlines to find clear thinking business analysts. Case in point, the $3 Diet Coke. Most of us can remember a time when the flight attendants passed out bags of pretzels and peanuts as if they were in endless supply. We didn't question the generosity because deep down we all knew that we were paying for those peanuts and 8 ounce beverages.  We should have seen the writing on the wall when we were asked to pay to stay warm ($7 blankets!). But no, they just had to push us to the brink of exasperation.


Well, that happened to me on a recent Delta flight to Atlanta where I was prompted for $3 for my Diet Coke. I hadn't flown on Delta for quite some time.  Being from California, I generally fly Southwest everywhere, where your 8 oz. beverage is included in the cost of your flight. I couldn't believe I was being asked to pay for a Diet Coke. It just didn't make sense.  So, I got to thinking about how a big business that, presumably, employs lots of smart people could make such a dumb decision as to charge their passengers for a beverage when most other airlines don't charge.


This got me thinking about Customer Lifetime Value (CLV). A frequent flyer, such as myself, can be extremely valuable to an airline. Hence, all the frequent flyer/rewards programs.  Let's just say that my CLV is $500k to an airline like Delta. Just how many $3 Diet Cokes do you need to sell to replace me as a lifetime customer? I'll tell you.  You need to sell at least 166,666 Diet Cokes to replace ONE customer who has defected to another airline due to this violation of my perceived rights to a beverage.  That's right, you need to sell almost 200,000 Diet Cokes to replace *one* customer. This doesn't even take into account the costs associated with procuring the Diet Coke from their supplier and the labor costs associated with transporting and delivering the Diet Coke to my cramped airline seat. When you account for those costs, Delta might need to sell more than 400k Diet Cokes to replace me as a customer.


When I asked a Delta representative for an explanation, he made the classy move (sic) of essentially blaming the customers for this change.  In so many words he said that the price sensitivity of airline travelers and the high competition makes every dollar on the quoted fare price to be critically important. There's got to be a better way to streamline costs without having to nickle and dime passengers who expect a beverage to be included in their fare cost.  RyanAir in Europe is completely transparent about their pricing model.  You pay for everything and you might even be bombarded with advertising on the plane.  In exchange, you can buy tickets from Dublin to Rome for less than $50.  That seems like a more customer friendly model.


With all the talk here in America about "big government" and the perils of market regulation, I can't help but thinking that the romanticism of flying died after airlines were deregulated and allowed to run each other out of business. Maybe regulated markets are so bad after all.  That is, as long as I get my Diet Coke at no additional cost...


Russ


Russ Hearl
CEO & Co-Founder
Sherpa Travel Exchange, LLC
601 Van Ness Ave, Suite E-208
San Francisco, CA 94102

www.staysherpa.com

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The "Social Rush": How Twitter and Facebook change social travel (Part 1 of 3)

By Russ Hearl, CEO and Co-Founder, Sherpa Travel Exchange, http://www.staysherpa.com/

This is the first post in a three part series on the intersection of travel and social networking.

Is it just me or does it seem like everyone and their brother is claiming to be a social media "expert"?  Just because one uses Facebook or Twitter doesn't make that person an expert.  Individuals and businesses are rapidly trying to figure out how to "leverage" the power of the social networks.  Candidly, this means they are trying to figure out how to market and sell you stuff now that they know a whole lot more about you than they could have ever known prior to you providing such wonderful information about your likes/dislikes and general whereabouts.  

Like the California Gold Rush, there's now what I call a "Social Rush" of enterprising intermediaries attempting to stake their claim in the social travel landscape. It's been said that very few of the gold crazed 49ers became rich from their prospecting efforts.  Rather, the entrepreneurs that provided the implements with which to search for gold (such as pix axes, shovels, hotels and food) were the ones to actually strike it rich and set the stage for a dramatically altered economic landscape.

A similar phenomena is playing out in the social travel space (By my definition, social travel is the intersection of community and travel).  Fortunately for us travelers there are dozens, if not hundreds, of businesses being started at this moment that seek to provide the foundation and value added services needed to increase the availability of supply while driving down prices. In the end, the real winners will be the travelers who benefit from a greater variety of travel accommodations and destination services at a far lower cost.  The burgeoning social travel movement will make travel generally more affordable around the world and will enable greater numbers of people to explore this amazing planet.

Let's first discuss the democratization of markets and how social travel will democratize established institutions:

The efficiency and productivity gains brought by the internet touched almost every corner of our post-industrial society. Unfettered and free access to information has proven to be the great equalizer that has broken down bureaucratic silos and even the most militaristic of institutional hierarchies.  It would be hard to argue against the fact that the internet has squashed outdated business models and reduced barriers to entry; thereby allowing enterprising people to reach huge audiences through the distribution power of the internet. 

YouTube offers the most visible example of the democratization of markets.  YouTube wasn't the first user-generated video site, but it quickly became the most widely used because it gave video content providers an open platform for distribution. Before long, anyone with a camera could broadcast their video and quickly build a massive audience.

"Deal of the day" sites also built massive audiences in unbelievably short periods of time.  Groupon, for example, started in late 2008 and is rumored to have more than 2 million members receiving deals of the day via email.  This $100 million business was built virtually overnight through crowdsourcing.  Zynga is another great example of a business that was built entirely on the backs of the social networks.  Their inescapable and addictive FarmVille and MafiaWars game are a ubiquitous reminder of just how rapidly a business can scale an audience when they leverage an open platform distribution technology like Facebook or Twitter. There's never been a point in history where the "little guy" had so much power to democratize markets and build a significant following.

Social travel has manifested itself in community-oriented sites like Couchsurfing, GlobalFreeloaders and Tripping.com to name a few.  These sites offer hosts and travelers an opportunity to engage in a cultural/hospitality exchange for little to no money.  I've used all three sites and think they're really great, but they risk falling victim to the same problems that beset computing giants such as DEC and Sun: Proprietary standards and walled-garden technologies lead people to search for ways to break down those walls. 

This is where the massive distribution power and reach of sites like Facebook and Twitter have the opportunity to transcend mere content syndication used by most social travel sites in the name of 'viral marketing.' Simply offering apps via the social networks to enable travelers to book a flight or find a couch to crash on is not enough and really only supports a quasi-walled garden approach to serving a massive market for travel services. Ultimately, I believe stand-alone social travel networks will be usurped by more organic, open communities that are accessible from all corners of the internet, rather than via a destination site.

Part two of this three part series on social travel will discuss how innovative entrepreneurs are building organic social networks as a way to dramatically increase the size of the social travel distribution pipe.

Russ Hearl

CEO & Co-Founder

Sherpa Travel Exchange, LLC

601 Van Ness Ave, Suite E-208

San Francisco, CA 94102

russ.hearl@staysherpa.com

http://www.staysherpa.com/

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Travel Review Sites: Moral Hazard Ahead

By Russ Hearl, CEO and Co-Founder, Sherpa Travel Exchange, LLC

"Trust me." "To be honest with you."

Have you ever noticed that these prefacing statements are often precursors to a tall-tale? Well, when it comes to endorsements (or indictments, for that matter) of travel experiences it becomes equally difficult to separate fact from fiction.

User generated and social travel review sites such as TripAdvisor and HotelChatter have become mainstream options for travelers seeking a third-party review of airlines, car rental companies, tour operators, hotels, and vacation rentals, to name a few. Millions of people use these sites to obtain a less biased review than they would get by looking at a travel services supplier website or brochure.

But, how un-biased are these sites in reality?

It's a question that we should all ask ourselves. After all, many of these sites are supported by advertising revenues. This applies a not-so-insignificant amount of pressure on the site operators/businesspeople to make sure the people paying the bills are happy. I know this may sound cynical, but as a former advertising executive myself, I can tell you that there is a significant moral hazard present in advertising supported businesses. Lest we think that the big, colorful real estate section in our local newspaper is there because the editor just couldn't wait to tell you about the new sub-division opening up on the other side of town.  I have friends in the newspaper business that tell me a meaningful portion of the content is written to garner paid advertisements. So ask yourself - Is it real news or bait to lure-in advertisers?

When it comes to review sites, how trustworthy is the 5-star aggregate score for the service provider in question? Case in point, Yelp was hit with a class action lawsuit alledging that they are really running an extortion scheme. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of a collection of local businesses that alledge Yelp promises to remove negative comments about their businesses only if they agree to pay a monthly advertising fee. Whoa. If that's true it really makes you wonder whether you're actually getting reviews of real exerpeinces or just the positive ones. Anyone that has used Yelp knows that there's no shortage of inflammatory reviews of service providers.  Many of the negative reviews are actually really funny, but most are plain outrageous and could be considered libelous in some jurisdictions.

Forrester Research examined the motivations of travelers that read and wrote reviews of travel experiences. The research found that 21% of travelers had read reviews on travel review sites like TripAdvisor in the previous 12 months in order to make travel purchase decsisions. The research also found that:

• 19% of the travelers who responded said that they left a review because they were told they would be entered into a drawing for a prize or would receive some form of compensation for submitting a review.
• 27% said they wanted to warn others about a bad experience.
• 48% said they wanted to share a good experience with others.

Overall, more than 6 in 10 U.S. leisure travelers were found to regularly participate in travel-focused social media activities like rating a hotel. Clearly, travelers like to tell almost anyone about our experiences (witness the 50,000+ travel blogs).

Indeed, many marketers would argue that the revolutionary impact of the social networks and user generated content sites (like travel review sites) is embodied in the ability to inspire, monitor and, (cough, ahem!) control word of mouth marketing.  Of course, the transparency offered by social networks can cut both ways.  As travelers, we ought to question the credibility and integrity of some of the advertising supported review sites. Perhaps a more faithful representation of travel experiences could be gained by polling your own social networks using a Facebook poll or some sort of survey. But even then it would be difficult to gain a large enough sample size or let alone locate anyone within your network that has purchased or consumed services from a provider in your intended destination.

Despite the moral hazard, review sites might still over the best solution in the market for obtaining fast background checks on potential service providers. 

How about you?  Do you trust these review sites?

Russ

Russ Hearl
CEO & Co-Founder
Sherpa Travel Exchange, LLC
601 Van Ness Ave., Suite E208
San Francisco, CA 94012
http://www.staysherpa.com/

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It's been a while...

I know, I know. It's been forever since I've posted anything. We've just been really busy on a number of fronts, including lots of traveling and staying in lots of hotels. Which got me thinking...

Ask nearly anyone who travels for business and they will probably tell you that business travel sucks. Traveling for business is not at all as fun as it sounds. No matter the how large the expense account and no matter how great it may sound to eat out at nice restaurants every night, the hassles and inconveniences constantly levied by the airlines, your grill being four inches from the back of some dude's head in United Economy, crazy taxi drivers, distant car rental lots, and dirty hotels can cancel out those aforementioned perceived benefits. I'm not generally a complainer- I just lower my expectations and take one for the team, as it were. The funny thing is, when I started traveling on business 12 years ago I really looked forward to getting on the road. Some romantic notion of flying on airplanes and hotel room service seemed to have clouded my thinking.

This week I've stayed at two hotels which claim to have been awareded the 4-Diamond distinction. Both hotels lost my reservation, didn't have my frequent guest rewards card number on my reservation and both checked me into rooms that were allegedly "clean" but were much dirtier than my own bedroom (which isn't THAT clean). Above all else, I felt like a stranger in both of the cities I've visited this week and I couldn't seem to get good directions or recommendations from the bell stand.

Speaking of dirty hotels, the Huffington Post released this expose yesterday...

The home based lodging movement aims to make travel much more accessible and authentic by empowering homeowners and property managers with the ability to compete with hotels for paying guests. For those people that question why would anyone want to allow a stranger to stay in their home, you need look no further than the fact that businesses such as HomeAway.com and even free classifieds and accommodations sites like Craigslist and Couchsurfing.org have become exceptionally popular. One of our competitors is even launching an integrated marketing campaign that includes a 30 second Super Bowl commercial. This demonstrates that there's a lot of growth potential in this space and will prove to be a viable and growing alternative to hotels in the future.

Until next time... Travel safe.

Russ


Russ Hearl
Head Sherpa & Co-Founder
Sherpa Travel Exchange, LLC
601 Van Ness Ave, Suite E-208
San Francisco, CA 94102

415-997-9925 Google Voice
russ.hearl@staysherpa.com
http://www.staysherpa.com/

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The real unemployment rate

Today, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the U.S. economy lost a paltry 11,000 jobs. With all the fanfare, you would have thought that there was some reason to celebrate. Far from it.

Sure, we're no longer losing jobs at the same pace as at the beginning of the Great Recession, but one in ten people in the labor force is still out of work. Of the 165 million people in the labor pool, that's 16.5 million people that are out of work that are looking for a job and just can't find one. But it's a lot worse than that... The Bureau of Labor Statistics doesn't count people who are employed in part-time jobs to make ends meet or people who are considered to be "discoraged job seekers" and have stopped looking for work altogether - presumably because any family of four can eat off of the $800 subsidy paid twice a month. Yeah, that is, if you like to feed your kids ramen noodles three times a day.

The reality is that our economy, and our labor market, is in shambles. The real unemployment rate is closer to 17.5% when you factor in all the people that have stopped looking or have taken on part-time work just to make a few extra bucks. That's another 12 million people that can't find suitable full-time work. At a "full-employment" rate of 5% unemployment, our economy would have about 8 million unemployed people. There's nearly 20 million more people unemployed than there was when our economy was at full employment a couple years ago. That's freightening.

So, what's one to do if they can't find full-time work or refuses to don the orange apron at Home Depot or the blue apron at Wal-Mart for 25 hours a week and no benefits? Well, many people have turned to eBay to sell there stuff. In the last year, the number of online auctions on eBay has more than doubled. The average daily auction volume in August, 2008 was 15 million auctions. In November, 2009 it was close to 35 million. eBay is as popular as ever because it's a great place for people to make some extra cash. People are selling their stuff in droves.

The unemployed and underemployed are also turning to direct selling and Multi-Level marketing companies in droves. Amway, Tupperware and Avon have all experienced record growth in the ranks of their agents/salespeople. When times are tough, Americans become ultra resourceful. Door to door selling is even making a comeback. Who would've thought? I guess if people aren't at a job, then they're at home, so why not...

Speaking of resourceful, people are also getting into the hospitality business. I recently counted the number of short-term rooms for rent posted on Craigslist. These are rooms for rent by the day - not by the month or by the year. These are people looking to make a few extra bucks by providing lodging services to travelers. I found that on a typical weekday there are more than 1,000 new ads posted for short-term rooms for rent. This is more than double the number from just a year ago. Craigslist lacks essential security features to make it a fully functioning lodiging classifieds site, yet people are willing to take the risk to make a few extra bucks by renting out their extra space to travelers.

Americans possess an unprecendented amount of unused space in their homes. Resourceful people all around the country are learning that they can monetize their unused living space by getting into the hospitality/lodging business. People are running make-shift B&Bs as a way to avoid foreclosure. Not a bad idea if you ask me...

Mint.com posted a humorous video that discusses the real unemployment rate on YouTube.

Russ Hearl
Head Sherpa & Co-Founder
Sherpa Travel Exchange, LLC
601 Van Ness Ave, Suite E-208
San Francisco, CA 94102

415-997-9925 Google Voice
russ.hearl@staysherpa.com
www.sherpatravelexchange.com

Stay Smart. Stay Sherpa.

Project update

Hi everyone, it's been a while since my last post, so I thought I'd drop you a line to let you know what we've been up to. In the last month we've made considerable progress in building the Sherpa home based lodging marketplace. Designing and developing a complex product like this is challenging when you consider that we're building it for mass market adoption. During the last month we found a great software engineer, nearly completed the front-end design of the site and have been hard at work at programming the interface. We also participated in a VC competition that gave us many more ideas to enhance Sherpa's product ease of use and competitive advantage.

Simultaneously, we are ramping up our sales and marketing activities to line up key partnerships that will be important participants in our launch. We are also hard at work building an inventory of great homestays, B&Bs, vacation rentals and home exchange properties.

The early 2010 launch of Sherpa couldn't come at a better time. People around the world are struggling through this difficult recession and are in need of a life- line. Sherpa will extend a life-line to millions of people by providing them with a way to market their extra living space to travelers in search of a more authentic and personal travel experience. Homeowners and tenants around the world possess an unbelievable amount of unused space that can be monetized by accommodating travelers. With real unemployement hovering around 17.5% in the U.S., many people are looking for new and innovative ways to make some extra cash as they seek their next full-time job or work their way through an educational program that will help them change careers.

Over 50 million trips were booked this year in the U.S. alone where the accommodation type was someone else's home... and not a hotel. That includes vacation rentals, B&Bs, homestays and home exchanges. We're building a product, and a company, that is going to help millions of homeowners get into this market and compete for these paying guests. We welcome your feedback and questions.



Russ Hearl
Head Sherpa & Co-Founder
Sherpa Travel Exchange, LLC
601 Van Ness Ave, Suite E-208
San Francisco, CA 94102

415-997-9925 Google Voice
russ.hearl@staysherpa.com
www.sherpatravelexchange.com

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