Happy 1st Birthday Tripbod!

Highlights of our first year in action…

Thumbs-up for Tripbod in the Media

We launched Tripbod to glowing media reception in September 2009 – winning best travel website on The Times online and voted amongst the top new travel websites by The Telegraph.  The positive coverage has kept on coming, with Tripbod featuring on BBC Radio 4 and LBC radio shows, and we’ve even reached international fame, with praise in the Irish Times and online version of Germany’s newspaper, Spiegel.de.

With the continued passion and hard work of the whole Tripbod team, things look set for more international success this year…

Lots of satisfied Tripbod customers

In only 12 months, local advice and help from Tripbod’s local travel experts have already helped heaps of travellers experience better trips. Positive traveller feedback proves the Tripbod advance planning service works, confirming the real value of having a trusted local contact before you go.

Here are just a few of our travellers’ positive comments:

‘We could not have done it without you.  The added “extras” [we experienced] could only ever happen with local knowledge.’ Ben & Cate, Rwanda

‘Talking to Scott I really felt as if he had a good idea of what my aims for my holiday were, and the sort of things that I’d love (and just as importantly, the sort of things I’d be bored rigid by).’ Stephen, New York

‘Using Tripbod has been fantastic! For a first time visitor with absolutely no idea of what to expect, my Tripbod helped me get a feel for the place and what to expect before I left.’ Luke, Japan

‘My Tripbod’s effortless, approachable style and extensive knowledge really gave us the confidence we needed to make our holiday ours (and not the travel agents)!’ Jason, India

Great Tripbods in over 100 destinations worldwide

Launching with Tripbods in 30 countries, our Tripbod network has now grown to cover more than 100 destinations worldwide. All without compromising the Tripbod values of trust, quality, local passion & knowledge – the values that guarantee travellers a memorable experience.

Unlike other local travel advisory services, all Tripbods are personally interviewed by Tripbod HQ to ensure they fit the Tripbod travel ethos – it’s a great way for us to ‘e-meet’ our new team members too!

Tripbod continues to recruit new members, hoping to expand our worldwide coverage with the help of passionate, knowledgeable locals. Could you be a Tripbod? Join us

Tripbods working passionately for Tripbod

We’re lucky at Tripbod to be in such great company! Our Tripbods can always be relied upon to help – whether it’s to answer general customer questions, provide tips for media articles or keep us updated with the latest destination info and unique local experiences for our Tripbod blog.

Granada Tripbod Violeta impressed traveller Stephen so much, that he wrote a whole article about her for German online newspaper, Spiegel.de.

Changes at Tripbod HQ

Tripbod’s launch was a team effort from founder Sally Broom and old school friend & former Moscow Ad Executive, Dot Pinkney. The team of two went from strength to strength in the first nine months of operation, and once Dot had seen Tripbod fully established as a reputable online travel service, she decided to return to her consultancy roots, accepting a position with leading consultancy, Deloitte.

This turned out to be perfect timing for former Rough Guides employee, Liz Sutcliffe.  Fresh off the plane from teaching English in Brazil and looking for a new travel venture, Liz jumped at the chance to join the team in May and has never looked back.

Now partners in the business, Sally and Liz are working hard on taking Tripbod to the next level and helping travellers worldwide to travel better, the Tripbod way.

New Tripbod partnerships

Tripbod fans don’t miss a trick! When Tech Crunch published news of a blossoming relationship between Tripbod and Visit Britain last month, Twitter went wild and congratulations came flooding in (which we’re hugely grateful for)! The rumours are true – Tripbod is currently working on some UK Tripbod products to launch in the Visit Britain online shop – but for now we’re keeping schtum about the details!

Tom Volpe from HeadingThere approached Tripbod to participate in his Best of Travel Blog Carnival, which launched in July. By bringing the best of travel blogging together in a single post, Tom’s great idea has helped Tripbod and other smaller travel websites share their travel knowledge with a wider audience.

As well as our more public relationships, Tripbod works closely behind the scenes with a number of local travel services, online start-ups and tech entrepreneurs, who share our business ethos and are a great source of support and inspiration. We’re hugely grateful to all of them and though too numerous to mention here, we never hold back in telling them how much we appreciate them.

The future’s bright for Tripbod

One year in and the Tripbod team already have a lot to be proud of. So what’s next for Tripbod?

• New partnerships
• New Tripbods
• More happy customers
• Who knows what else?

A huge thank you to our Tripbods, our travellers, our partners, the media and our friends for all their support in year one! Here’s to even better things to come in our second year – three cheers for Tripbod!