Zachary Smith is Co-Founder and CEO of gtrot, a social travel site that helps users share travel plans with friends and collect advice from people they trust. Under his leadership, the company took top prize in the Harvard Innovation Challenge and attracted Series A funding from Lightbank, the Chicago-based VC headed by Groupon co-founders Eric Lefkofsky and Brad Keywell. gtrot was recently named a Top 5 Startup at Chicago TechWeek 2011.
Zachary was previously a consultant at Bain & Co. in New York. He holds a BA from Harvard College and fell in love with travel while on exchange at Oxford University.
Cheapflights: How has social media changed the way people travel?
Zach Smith: Social media has taken travel-related conversations that used to occur offline and put them online. These conversations range from destination discovery (“Where should I go for my week off?”) to purchasing (“What hotel should I stay at?”) to planning (“What do you recommend doing in Bangkok?”). The impact of moving these conversations to the web is enormous. For one, it greatly expands the set of people you can converse with, so finding trustworthy advice is easier. Social networks also store information – like where your friends live – that can guide these conversations. On our site, gtrot.com, we look at where your Facebook friends currently live, where they went to school, where they’ve worked, where they checked in, and where they grew up. So when you’re looking for advice about a particular destination, we can show you friends to talk to and facilitate those conversations through various social media sites.
Which hints at another benefit of social media: the proliferation, standardization, and preservation of tons of trip-relevant data. The Facebook photo and Foursquare check-in are great examples. Your friends are generating tons of destination-specific data every day – photos of their surroundings, tips about particular venues, etc. – that might inspire your destination decision or inform the places you choose to visit. Sites like gtrot can do lots of cool stuff with this data, like instantly recommend places to eat in New York City based on where your friends like to go.
Finally, social media sealed the ascendancy of photos. Lots of those photos are related to travel. How many vacationers have you seen trying to snap the perfect pic and then uploading it immediately to Facebook or Instagram? It seems like that’s half the reason people travel. And I really believe that the inundation of trip-related photos inspires more trip-taking…that the “status” element of travel has been greatly elevated by prolific online photo-sharing.
CF: Where do you find inspiration on where to visit? (E.g. print, friends, internet)
ZS: When it comes to choosing a destination for my big annual or semi-annual vacation, my own travel history often dictates my decision: I know what places I haven’t visited and really want to see. These are places I’ve heard friends or other travelers rave about, or (more likely) places with a rich history, different culture, new geography, or contemporary relevance that make it an obvious next destination (I’m thinking China as I write this). I usually choose a destination with a great deal on airfare.
I actually think the importance of the “Where should I go?” question is overplayed in the minds of industry folk, especially when thinking about the intersection of social and travel. Very, very few trips – including leisure trips – start with that question. Most travel begins with a destination: you have a wedding or event in DC, friends you need to visit in New York, a vacation home in Colorado, parents in the Carolinas. I think, for most people, open-ended travel opportunities come once a year. Sites that play to the destination question are going to have a hard time creating a sticky experience for that reason. At gtrot, we’re very conscious of developing a product that’s useful whether you’re driving to your hometown or flying to a distant destination.
CF: Any tips on researching a new destination before taking off?
ZS: Go to gtrot.com. Seriously. We launched a new product in beta in mid-August that makes the trip-planning process so much simpler and more social. We essentially provide an instant social itinerary containing experiences, things to do, events, and deals in your destination based on data from your social graph. It’s amazing.
CF: What’s your routine before you fly?
ZS: I usually check in online the day before the flight, opt for the mobile boarding pass option if available, and throw a bag together that night (or the morning of). I’m a pretty low-stress traveler.
CF: What is an absolute must on your packing list?
ZS: The only musts are clean boxers, deodorant, and a toothbrush. A Kindle is nice too, and I almost always bring my computer.
CF: Of the airports you’ve passed through – Stateside and abroad – which is the most convenient?
ZS: Long Beach, California. JetBlue flies through there. It’s a single terminal with a single waiting room. It’s like a shack and it’s not nice but does it get more convenient than that? I’ve walked through miles of terminals at the likes of Boston Logan and Chicago O’Hare. No thanks.
CF: Who’s the most memorable seatmate (or what’s the most memorable conversation) you’ve had on a plane?
ZS: I once sat behind Marty Feldstein, the legendary Harvard economist, on a flight from DC to Boston. And by “in front of me”, I mean that I was in the first row of economy and he in the back row of first class, with a partition between us. Not long after that, I was in a cab line at Boston Logan Airport right behind Larry Summers, who was chief economic counsel to Obama at the time. We were both headed across the river to Harvard but I was too timid to ask if he’d mind sharing a cab. I still regret that.
CF: What countries or regions do you believe offer the best bang for your buck?
ZS: Of the places I’ve been, Southeast Asia and southern South America are the most memorable for their low prices.
CF: Is there a destination that without fail (barring floods and famine) you visit regularly?
ZS: Only domestic destinations like New York and my hometown of Austin. If I were wealthier I think I’d take more frequent trips to Buenos Aires. That’s one of my favorite cities in the world. Its mix of beautiful and generous people, diverse neighborhoods, incredible food, good climate, and relatively low prices is hard to beat.
CF: Do you recommend using guided tours at a new destination?
Absolutely. A well-recommended tour guide is a great way to get to know a city and its history. It also gives you a glimpse into the life of a local that you might not otherwise get.
Cheapflights is proud to have guest voices express their opinions. The views expressed are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of Cheapflights Media (USA) Inc.
