VibeAgent Inc., a new travel 2.0 website, has announced a seed round of financing and appointed Trip Davis, President and CEO of TRX to its Board of Directors. (7/23/2007)
The investment round will be used to finance the growth of the business. The size of the round was not disclosed. Founded in early 2006, the site is yet to be made open to the public.
Davis will join existing board members Adam Healey (co-founder and CEO) and Charles Seilheimer (co-founder, President and CFO) in shaping the future direction of the company. The site combines user reviews, meta-search, and social networking “to help people find the perfect hotel at the perfect price”.
According to the site, the reviews and social connections on the site in turn drive VibeAgent’s proprietary social search algorithm, which serves up personalised hotel recommendations in the order they are likely to appeal to the user. VibeAgent’s meta-search engine gathers rates and availability for over 100,000 hotels worldwide from many of the leading hotel and travel websites, so users can also book their chosen hotels at the best available prices.
“Unlike most other travel sites, we don’t take any money from hotel chains to influence the order of our search results. Our search results are completely organic, as they are based entirely on the reviews of travelers that share your tastes and preferences,” states the site. “Once you’ve found the hotel that’s best for you, we find you the best available rate by comparing quotes from many different transaction partners, both hotels and other travel e-commerce sites. When you book a hotel through VibeAgent, you can be confident we’re dedicated to getting you the best room rate available.”
