When Kevin Maloney began to plan his visit a friend mentioned a brand new service called ViaHero. “I understood there was a great deal to see in Iceland and that I had a short period of time. I didn’t wish to devote a lot of personal time doing the research,” Maloney says. “My goal was to have a professional map it out for me.”
He was searching for someone with expert knowledge of the area, but tailored to exactly what Maloney wanted to perform on holiday. “It would not have been hard identifying some of the huge landmarks, like Blue Lagoon,” he says. “But it might have been difficult for me to determine great neighborhood food spots, or natural springs that are not in the guide books.”
So he signed up for the service and obtained a local “Hero” at Iceland.
“My Hero was amazing to work with,” Maloney tells me. “Very helpful and pinpointed the activities that we wanted to perform after a short online interview.” The Hero of Maloney made certain he is in a position to have a worthy breakfast on landing from his flight by advocating a restaurant which opened earlier than many others.
“Rather than searching around, I knew exactly where to go.”
What is ViaHero?
ViaHero enables travelers to pick a local to plan their trip. It’s expanding quickly, although the service has natives in Cuba, Japan, and Iceland so much. “Every excursion is personalized through an in-the-know neighborhood, called a Hero,” explains Ben Preston, Co-Founder and Head of Development for ViaHero.
“The Heroes provide travel consulting, on-the-ground structures, and build a personalized guidebook and custom maps with local recommendations,” Preston says. “Travelers spare time, discover hidden gems, and have all they need at their hands on the ViaHero mobile app.”
Independent travelers lack time and knowledge that is local to plan an global trip, particularly if it’s off-the-beaten-path. And more, people want experiences that are unique.
“A traveler may spend over thirty hours arranging a trip, they could wing it when they get there, or they may use a travel agent who possesses local understanding and is incentivized to sell the traveler a much more expensive trip,” says Preston. “It’s easier, cheaper, and quicker to get a local arrange everything. Our users are able to drive classic cars in Cuba, visit the Northern Lights at concealed spots in Iceland, and have the very best food at Tokyo–all thanks to their local Heroes.”
ViaHero launched with Cuba in 2016 as the first destination. The firm capitalized despite the lack of travel recommendations due to this Cuba travel ban on a interest in Cuba. ViaHero expanded to Iceland and Japan in 2017, and it’s slated to expand to destinations across Asia South America, and Europe at 2018.
How Does ViaHero Work?
“ViaHero is like a traveling agent for the Airbnb audience,” says Preston. The service aims travelers that wish to travel without paying for an expensive, guide-led group excursion.
ViaHero uses Heroes, or real locals, to plan each trip from $25 per day. For example could have Lianet, foodie that is self-professed and a Cuban journalist, on their side.
ViaHero provides useful excursion plans in an mobile program. Including booking recommendations, trip consulting, and a guidebook that is personalized. ViaHero’s premium program, which costs $40 daily, includes features like on-the-ground phone service map navigation, and restaurant reservations.
His lone caveat was the maps while Maloney speaks positively about the service. “They did not do a great job of mapping out the landmarks for our self-driving tours. The very ones to see were identified by them –and nailed it –but did not provide detailed instructions. They work with the maps.me app, but it wasn’t intuitive.”
But Maloney would recommend it to others, and says he would use the service again. “It’s great for those who wish to get the most out of a holiday.”
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