Imagine. It’s February, the sky is gray, and the warmth of the sun is but a fading memory. Work is monotonous, the bronzer can’t hide the pallor of your skin and you’re bone-tired. You can either succumb to depression, or you can perhaps start planning that diving vacation you talked to your friends about during Christmas. Blue skies, endless sea, a sailboat on the horizon and in your hand a generous glass of gin and tonic.

It’s the middle of the workday, what you should really do is open that Excel sheet. But instead, you sneak a peek at your favorite online travel provider. One hour later your eyes are sparkling, and you send off a short email with some screenshots and a few links to possible destinations, to your four best friends. The Azures, the Maldives, Zanzibar… That night, you fall asleep with a smile on your face and dream that you are dozing off on a sandy beach. The following day, you have 16 “Reply all” emails full of additional suggestions, constructive criticism and links to other travel websites in your inbox. You open a Whatsapp group.

Three days later you have narrowed it down from six to four destination options, transferred the task of travel bookings to your best friend and unfriended one of your prospective travel-mates. Your last message in the Whatsapp group reads “Sorry, I, for one, have to work. I don’t have time or energy for this”. No emoji.

This scenario may be a bit dramatized, but it’s not far from reality. Making travel decisions in a group is difficult. One can always procrastinate, but if you do, prices may change, and oddly, those changes are usually only in one direction. Vacations, furthermore, are not a neutral subject, they are both heavy budget items and something we dream about and attach great emotional expectations to.

So, in today’s less hierarchical society, where there isn’t necessarily a “boss” or “parent” casting the decisive vote, holidays are decisions we want to reach democratically.

This is true even for family vacations. Deciding the framework together means we can avoid conflict once there, for example between those who want to visit the local cat café and those who positively must see the much talked about exhibition of medieval miniature paintings.

Gamitee allows travelers to go several steps beyond a conference call. It doesn’t matter where you are, everyone in your group can use the Gamitee feature to watch suggested options together, without missing out on hearing insightful comments such as “Is it possible that it is cheap because of monsoon season?”. You and your friends can easily negotiate and accommodate preferences and musts, find inspiration and learn from each other’s experiences, and reach an early “buy in”, knowing that everyone has had an equal opportunity to review the options discussed.

Taking responsibility for the choices of a group is a heavy burden. It is much easier and less stressful if responsibility for a given choice is shared by the whole group. It doesn’t mean that everything has to be decided ahead, but having the option to reach an informed agreement makes it not only statistically considerably more likely that we will be able to book our group trip, but also that the trip will be to everyone’s satisfaction. This ultimately improves user experience and increases the chances that the group will come back to your website, to purchase their next vacation, together.

Visit our site for more information: www.gamitee.com and come say hello to us at our booth (TTLP6) during TTE London 2020.

This blog was posted by Petra Euler, one of Gamitee’s business advisors and investors. Petra is a former chief executive in the travel industry, currently acting as advisor at a private equity investment firm for M&A and post-merger integration, and as business and angel advisor for startup companies.