Vacation Relation left to die, team promises better with Tripl

Seems to be a period for so-called pivots among some of the travel startups that arrived on the scene in 2010, with Vacation Relation making way for a new site called Tripl.

Vacation Relation [TLabs Showcase - Vacation Relation] first emerged in mid-2010 as a way of finding out who might be in a destination when you arrive.

Now the team have decided to retire the original idea and return in the next few weeks with a different service, funding round, new engineers, new focus.

Tripl is expected to launch in time for the summer season, founder Peter Sullivan says, by turning the Vacation Relation strategy into a wider service that incorporates destination services and local people into a user’s social graph.

The original Vacation Relation site will be switched off.

Details are expected to be confirmed in the coming weeks but Sullivan says the new incarnation “isn’t reliant on critical mass and provides added value from day one”, presumably by connecting users with a service or product rather than attempting mass tweetup-style collaboration between random travellers.

“We have been working on this idea of ‘social and travel’ since 2009 and through iteration and refinement we have realized we’re finally on to something big.”

The company has secured $300,000 worth of funding from a number of investors in Europe and the US to kickstart Tripl, Sullivan says. Currently based in Sweden, Tripl is expecting to relocate soon to New York.

Tripl is also hoping to move into the B2B space, making the entire service available via an API for online travel agencies.

“Through our system and Facebook integration they will be able to sell travel products to people all year round with big social incentives based on their social graph. Something really cool for OTAs who want to inspire people to travel even if they have no trips planned.”

Tripl’s change in direction follows that of Scoville, the new name and positioning for another social startup from last year, Kukunu.

Scoville is a location-based recommendation engine (running via FourSquare) offering tips about services and products in a particular destination, all created by other users of the services.