NileGuide iPhone app features multisource content, many destinations

NileGuide, the trip-planning company, released its second mobile app, What’s Next, an iPhone app that features information on more than 200 destinations from 30-plus content sources.

Josh Steinitz, the CEO of NileGuide, says the fact that What’s Next offers original content from NileGuide plus destination information from more than 30 partners, including Frommer’s, OpenTable, Wcities, Ciao Bambino, Viator, BedandBreakfast.com, LocalHikes, Citysearch, Thrillist, Wine Travel Guides and hotels.com, is one of the differentiators of the app, which sells for $2.99.

(Some of the above, however, are not integrated into the app yet, I’m told.)

Another point of difference with most guidebook apps is that NileGuide’s offers recommendations on more than 200 destinations instead of one destination at a time, he says.

In addition, What’s Next has traveler preference filters and a Near Me button, which enables travelers to get recommendations based on their preferences at locations in their current vicinity.

Steinitz says What’s Next is different from its first mobile app, Guide to Go, because What’s Next “is a substitute or complement to our website experience” and therefore NileGuide opted to monetize What’s Next directly by charging the $2.99 download fee.

Guide to Go, a free app, enables travelers to download onto their handheld devices itineraries they’ve created on the NileGuide website.

“Guide to Go was never designed to be a substitute for our website experience,” Steinitz says, explaining why the app is free.

Steinitz says the nature of NileGuide’s relationships with the more than 30 content providers vary, with NileGuide licensing some of the content, providing “link love,” or getting free access through an API.

For example, he says, OpenTable offers its content for free because it wants to gain restaurant bookings, and the same is true for hotels.com, which seeks to drive hotel bookings.

NileGuide contracted with a developer to build What’s Next, and an in-house team designed it and created the UI (user interface), Steinitz says.