NEW YORK, June 17, 2014 – In an effort to make sure its consumers have a choice between unique trips organized in full automation through a booking engine and those curated by the best travel advisors in the world,
Yonderbound announced a partnership with Virtuoso®, the travel industry’s leading luxury network including more than 340 agencies and 8,900 elite advisors across 20 countries throughout North and South America, the Caribbean, Australia, and New Zealand. Yonderbound is among the first online travel marketplaces to partner with Virtuoso®, effectively bridging the gap between traditional and online travel booking.
“While there are a lot of customers who like to build their trips and choose online travel agents to plan and book, there are also customers who prefer to rely on experienced travel advisors to plan their dream trips,” said Barbara Muckermann, Founder and CEO of Yonderbound. “By partnering with Virtuoso, we are allowing our community to seek guidance from the best travel advisors in the world, book trips in full automation through the Yonderbound booking engine, or try any combination in between.”
Via this unique partnership, select Virtuoso advisors will create special Yonderboxes, which Yonderbound users will be able to book directly through the advisor. In addition to the more than 380,000 global hotel and apartment offerings already available to book through Yonderbound, these special Yonderboxes will provide site visitors with access to exclusive Virtuoso® packages and benefits, excursions, experiences, products, and insider knowledge that only a trusted travel advisor can offer.
“This is an intriguing opportunity to align our full-service advisor expertise and capabilities, and implement them alongside a do-it-yourself booking model like Yonderbound, which ultimately benefits the traveler,” said Matthew D. Upchurch, Chairman and CEO of Virtuoso. “Yonderbound is offering travelers the option to book travel in the way that best serves their needs, and we look forward to working together to further our shared vision of helping people travel better.”
The partnership will also provide Virtuoso® travel advisors with access to a whole new community of travel fanatics as Yonderbound will act as a marketplace where they will be able to display their trips and serve as the primary contact for customers wishing to book through them. The advisors will earn their regular commission from bookings closed through Yonderbound.
In addition to the partnership with Virtuoso, the company also recently announced the launch of its Yonderfund, a unique website functionality that will allow consumers to win funds to pay for their dream trip through community voting for the remainder of its existence.
For more information on Yonderbound and the Yonderfund, please visit yonderbound.com/yonderfund/.
