Eluding the ordinary: how Elude is providing an alternative to mass travel apps
How many times have you wanted to go somewhere, but didn’t quite have a specific place in mind? More like an itching sensation in your gut telling you you should go on an adventure, but every time you start to think about where to – you get overwhelmed by the possibilities, Google searches and tons of hoops you need to jump through? If this sounds like you, there might be an app for that – and it’s called Elude.
Elude is just what we described at the beginning of this piece: a spontaneous travel search engine that allows users to discover and book unique packages based only on one thing – their budget.
Having no destination in mind, we show our community exactly which cities they can afford to travel to (flight & hotel included.)
Elude was started because its founders, Alex Simon and Frankie Scerbo lived this lifestyle and wanted to have an app that plans trips based on the budget alone. The co-founders used to spend every holiday and weekend to find a new city or country to travel to, and once they found that there’s thousands of people who like the same thing – they quit their jobs and started Elude.
Few taps from the time of your life
The “thing” with Elude is being spontaneous. Alex explains that travel booking looks extremely antiquated today. In addition, there’s not that much information regarding what a person can actually afford with the money they have in hand. Luckily, there’s only a few taps between you and your trip if you’re using Elude. Alex was kind enough to explain how it all works:
We show users a list of cities that match their budget as well as provide unique trips that might not have been searched. We are connected to the largest GDS suppliers (Sabre, Amadeus, and Travelport) to help curate the best available flight and hotel combination. Although travel has global players, they have largely neglected the younger generation and continue to be utilitarian in style. In the US alone, Millennials (our target market) spend over $200 Billion on travel annually. These travelers are looking for a new way to book a trip spontaneously and use a brand they can actually trust that speaks directly to them.
One of the most interesting things about Elude is the fact that the team made a million-dollar app (really, it’s much more than that) with our help! Yes, Sintezis helped make Elude happen, and Alex tells us that he was impressed with the connection with the Sintezis team from day one. Thanks, Alex!
A friend in need…
Sintezis was there every step of the way and provided guidance on what we should be looking into as well as potential partners to streamline the app. As we grew and raised funding, so did the team at Sintezis. We are incredibly grateful to have tech partners that have been with us from the start. As mentioned, they see the same vision but more importantly help us get there!
The best thing about working with a good tech partner is clearly sharing the same vision. We’re extremely proud that we made that “click” with Elude, and Alex tells us that the most important thing for elude is simply connecting over short, medium, and long term goals for the business – and actually have the level of detail to hit those goals. Not to toot our own horn, but this sounds like the perfect productive environment!
To conclude our talk, Alex pointed out a curious, travel-related fact: most big players in the travel sector are not brand-led. They are simply only there to care about the transaction, putting money in the bank and making a place for the next visitor. In contrast, Elude wants to be something different; a company that speaks directly to the traveler with their personalized experience, and Sintezis is there to support it every high-tech step of the way.
2021 / 10 / 18
DOMAGOJ BAGARIĆ