Sweltering heat and ubiquitous out-of-office email replies can mean only one thing — summer is here. And if you’re looking to set your own automated OOO, you’ll need to book a vacation ASAP. To assist you in doing so, there’s Skipper, a new kind of online booking service from Jetaport that wants to help you and your friends embark on that trip while taking care of the accommodations for you. Skipper can hook you up with “exclusive, discounted hotel rates, flexible payment options, and more,” so you might as well start skipping around the world.
Operating under the assumption that traveling is generally more fun in groups, Skipper helps your crew find the right hotel, no matter how many people you are. Recommending hotels based on location, occasion, price, amenities, and hotel reviews, Skipper claims to instantly turn “this typically overwhelming experience into a seamless and hassle-free reality.” With the service’s Booking Advisors, you’ll be able to plan for everyone and also score an average of 15 percent savings on group bookings at more than 56,000 hotels across the United States and Canada.
Skipper was founded by JPMorgan and hospitality veterans Jason Shames and Marcos Jaramillo, who wanted to create a service that took the legwork out of booking multiple hotel rooms for multiple people. “No matter the occasion, group travel should be easy, carefree and personal, so we built this platform to help our customers achieve exactly that. Our rebrand coincides and furthers this mission,” said CEO and co-founder Shames.
With the new service, travelers will be given flexible payment options so that everyone can pay individually and on their own time — and you, as the organizer, won’t be on the hook for them. Because users can either pay up front or set rooms aside at a discounted rate (all without putting a credit card down), flexibility is truly at its finest. And if you’re booking for a huge group such as a wedding party or corporate event, anyone needing 10 or more hotel rooms will be paired with their own designated Booking Advisor, who will take care of liaising with hotels, negotiating contracts, executing special requests, and more.
