Business Plan. August 2019 - Trips Community
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Business Plan.
August 2019
CONTENT
Content.
Target ........................................3 The Market ..............................26
One Pager ..................................4 Guest Description.............................26
Disclaimer .................................5 Host Description..............................27
Executive summary .....................7 Market Segments..............................28
Market Environment..........................8 Target Market...................................29
Conclusion........................................8 Market Size......................................29
—Trips Community Business Plan —
Network Owned Platform..................9 Competition....................................30
Why is the blockchain needed?............9 Decentralization of incumbents.........31
Reasons for Investing (RFI)...............10 Competitive Advantage.....................31
Open Source Software.......................12 Marketing Strategy...........................32
Open Inventory.................................13 Adormo LTD...................................35
Graceful Growth...............................14 Why Low Commissions will work......36
Company Overview ...................15 Operations ...............................37
Company and Platform.....................16 Token Holdings................................37
INSIGHTS ..............................17 Software Development......................38
Business Problems.............................17 The Management ......................39
Description of Risks..........................18 Structure.........................................39
Contingency Plans............................18 Management Team...........................40
The Community .......................42
Governance......................................19
Services ....................................21 Financials .................................43
How the Trips Platform Operates......21 Inventory and Bookings....................43
Unique Selling Points........................25 Expected Use of Funds......................45
Pre-Crowdfunding...........................48
Future Fundraising...........................48
Token Allocations.............................49
The Dapp ..................................49
2
TARGET
Target.
—Trips Community Business Plan —
This business plan is written for the
vacation rental industry players.
We strongly believe that in order
to create an open and neutral platform
we need to pay for it ourselves.
While getting funding from VCs may
seem the obvious choice to start up,
it comes with strings attached and
an embedded misalignment of interest
which risks to hurt the project
in the long term.
3
ONE PAGER
1.250.000
1.000.000 1.200.000
INVENTORY
THE MAIN NUMBERS
750.000
500.000 120.000
250.000 200 2.000 6.000 24.000
YEAR 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
€ 3.000.000 3.000.000
COMMISSIONS
€ 2.000.000
300.000
€ 1.000.000
500 5.000 15.000 60.000
YEAR 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024
EXPECTED USE OF FUNDS
Platform YEAR 1
Commission
Valuation € 1.500.000/2.000.000
5,0% Budget € 208.000
—Trips Community Business Plan —
Expenses € 208.000
YEAR 2
FEES Valuation € 5.000.000
Budget € 577.000
Expenses € 577.000
YEAR 3
Host profit Valuation € 20.000.000/40.000.000
95,0% Budget € 4.620.000
Expenses € 4.620.000
The valuation of this round the max cap the max investment per company
is 1.500.000 € is 100.000 € is 50.000 €
WHEN HOW MUCH VALUATION SHARES DESCRIPTION
PAST
1st equity Core
January 2019 € 13.500 € 750.000 1,80%
Crowdfunding
2nd equity Community
April 2019 € 11.500 € 1.000.000 1,15%
Crowdfunding
FUTURE date are indicative
September 2019 € 100.000 € 1.500.000 6,67% Companies Fundraising
November 2019 € 100.000 € 2.000.000 5,00% Crowdfunding
FUNDRAISING
2020 € 250.000 € 5.000.000 5,00% Crowdfunding
2020 € 300.000 € 5.000.000 6,00% Companies Fundraising
2021 € 1.000.000 € 20.000.000 5,00% Crowdfunding
2021 € 1.500.000 € 25.000.000 6,00% Companies Fundraising
2022 € 2.000.000 € 40.000.000 5,00% Investors 4
€ 5.275.000,00 41,62%
DISCLAIMER
Disclaimer.
You must read This Business Plan is not for any form of investment
a prospectus or offer doc- in any jurisdiction.
the following ument of any sort and is No regulatory authority
disclaimer in full not intended to constitute has examined or approved
in itself an offer of securities of any of the information
before continuing. of any form, units set out in this document.
in a business trust, units This Business Plan has
in a collective investment not been registered with
scheme or any other form any regulatory authority
of investment, or a solicitation in any jurisdiction.
The information and opinions contained The reader of this document acknowledg-
—Trips Community Business Plan —
in this document do not purport to be es that it should conduct its own indepen-
comprehensive and have not been inde- dent investigation and assessment as to
pendently verified. the validity of the information contained in
this document and the economic, financial,
While this document has been prepared
regulatory, legal, taxation and accounting
in good faith, no representation, warranty,
implications of that information and con-
assurance or undertaking (express or im-
sult its own professional advisers.
plied) is or will be made, and no responsi-
bility, liability or duty of care is or will be The information in this document is sub-
accepted by (TripsCommunity OÜ) («Trip- ject to change or update without notice
sCommunity OÜ») or any of its investors and should not be construed as a commit-
or subsidiaries or by any of their respective ment by TripsCommunity OÜ.
affiliates, advisers in relation to the ade-
This document is for informational pur-
quacy, accuracy, completeness, reliability
poses only and does not constitute an of-
or reasonableness of this document.
fer or solicitation to sell shares or securi-
All and any such responsibility and liability ties in TripsCommunity OÜ or any related
are expressly disclaimed. or associated company.
In particular, but without prejudice to the This Business Plan in current form is being
generality of the foregoing, no representa- circulated by TripsCommunity OÜ for
tion, warranty, assurance or undertaking is general information and to invite feed-
given as to the achievement or reasonable- back only on the TripsCommunity OÜ.
ness of any future projections, manage- platform as presently conceived, and is
ment estimates, prospects or returns con- subject to review and revision by the
tained in this document, or in such other directors of TripsCommunity OÜ, advi-
information, notice or document. sors to the entity and/or legal advisors
of TripsCommunity OÜ.
These projections are illustrative only and
actual results may be materially affected by
economic changes or other circumstances
which cannot be foreseen.
5
Trips Community
Business plan.
TripsCommunity OÜ
Pärnu mnt 158
11317 Tallinn
Estonia
—Trips Community Business Plan —
registry code: 11761802
THE COST OF OTAS
Trips is building a decentralized
Guestsare paying 20%
booking platform for Vacation (+ VAT where applicable) or more for booking
an accommodation on OTAs (1) and at the
Rentals on the blockchain. moment there are no real alternatives
to those platforms.
We want to make it easy to
book a place for short term
and up to a few months, with In addition, there is a 3-5%
(+ VAT where applicable) commission
zero friction and maximal for Hosts, in some cases bringing the total
fees to 23%.
security.
Transaction fees will
be minimal and all participants
in the community will If we add up the percentages charged for credit
card transactions in different currencies, about 3%,
be rewarded when value will we get to a total of around 26%.
be created.
1-https://www.airbnb.com/help/arti-
cle/1857/what-is-the-airbnb-service-fee
6
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Executive
Summary.
The vacation rental market This at the expense of the Using Tripsmeans more
has experienced a continuous Guests who end up paying income for the Hosts and
and steady growth. significant commissions less expenses for Guests.
directly or indirectly.
This growth has definitely Trips will earn a 5% commis-
been helped and supported Disintermediation, or «direct sion on each transaction.
—Trips Community Business Plan —
by large and powerful rental bookings» seems like a lost
platforms such as Airbnb battle in the way it has been An extra 3% fee will
and Booking.com. implemented until now. be added to card payments.
Unfortunately, at the If we get rid of the Trips will also implement
same time, their voracity middlemen with an open systems for accommodation
has created a monopolistic, blockchain platform, listing quality, fair cancel-
oligopolistic and incumbent the result will be a massive lation policies, long terms
presence that is able to transfer of wealth and value rentals, Hosts and Guests
control the Hosts and from the platforms to the reputations, customer care,
Guests flows. users: Hosts and Guests. dispute resolution and
payments in both crypto
They are able to decide Tripsis a blockchain-based and fiat currencies.
which Hosts get more decentralized reservation
visibility and how the profits marketplace that facilitates Trips wants to be a platform
are distributed, which direct transactions between serving the industry,
is mostly to the platform Guests and Hosts through as opposed to the industry
and little to the Hosts. the use of Smart Contracts. serving the platform.
7
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Market
Environment.
Trips enters the arena when
Conclusion.
the supply side is keenly
aware of the consequences
The opportunity we are presenting is
of having let the third parties
to realize a long-recognized market
own the market.
need that was inconceivable to address
Host and Property Man- through traditional tools.
—Trips Community Business Plan —
agers are not only ready,
Although there have been rapid gains
but eager, to create a fairer
in productivity in almost all aspects of
alternative to the OTAs.
distribution due to advances in technol-
The rise of the platforms, ogy and management techniques, the
first greeted as a tech- operating margins for most players, ex-
nological advance which cept OTAs haven’t seen a proportional
would benefit all players, growth.
is now seen as an unfair
The open blockchain and its ever-in-
advantage held by hi tech
creasing acceptance as a reliable tool
companies which extract
for bookings will remove most of the
much more value than
barriers to the creation of a common
they bring.
global platform.
The advent of distributed
The combination of the open block-
systems on the blockchain
chain and our unique market insights
is slowly but steadily
will create a wholly new opportunity for
exposing this fact making
vacation rentals firms and individuals.
high commissions increas-
ingly difficult to justify.
The total required capital to bring the
service to beta testing and on to full
implementation is estimated at 5 million €.
In summary, using innovative technology
and an experienced and seasoned man-
agement team, this business plan identi-
fies an opportunity to enter the market-
place and literally rewrite the rules of
how platforms interact with the market.
8EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Network Owned Why is the
Platform. blockchain
Typical VC backed companies belong to needed?.
investors and founders.
The blockchain is a Trust Layer.
The investor’s interest is usually the It handles programmatically
return on the investment, while the and securely the Trust be-
founder’s is a mix of financial incentive, tween buyers and sellers by
creative endeavour and business drives. holding the money (ETH in
our case) in a Smart Contract.
The actual users of the platform are sel-
—Trips Community Business Plan —
dom owners of the shares in the com- Once in a Smart Contract
pany while at the same time being pro- the money is out of the con-
foundly engaged stakeholders and part trol of the buyer and not yet
of the value creation process. in the hands of the seller.
We think that the VC-Founders owner- It is effectively held by the
ship represent an outdated model which Network and it can only
has been great for 20th century compa- be sent back to the buyer
nies but unfit for 21st century platforms. or onto the seller.
Users of the platform have the right to own The money is released by
the platform: they are the ones who bring the the buyer only after the stay
assets (e.g. the house), the labour (check-in, and in case of dispute the
maintenance, cleaning and so on), the cash network (Panel) decides
flow (Guests) the software enhancements where the money has to go.
(software companies) and services to build
the ecosystem (service companies). Trips has never access to
the money, thus Trips does
The Community has to own most of the not have to be trusted.
platform.
This new Trust layer makes the
Only in this way we believe the long handling of funds by the OTA
term interests are aligned and the eco- antiquated and expensive.
system can thrive.
As a result it can be said
Otherwise the platform becomes a trap, that the blockchain makes
attracting users, encouraging them to Trips possible.
build their lives and businesses on it
and then slowly extracting all the value Without it, it would be just
out of their work. another centralised OTA.
9EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Reasons Classic ROI takes a back seat in this
for Investing environment, leaving the main spot
(RFI). to RFI (Reasons for investing).
1) SAVINGS ON OTA’S COMMISSIONS 2) INCREASE IN SHARES
AND TOKEN VALUE
Let’s start with an example.
The market value of shares of Trips Com-
An Host invests 1.000 € in Trips shares munity OÜ may rise in case the platform is
and in the following 3 years she saves successful in generating bookings.
—Trips Community Business Plan —
2.000 € in OTAs commissions.
Her investment helped making Trips Owning shares is a bet on the Company.
a reality and it translated in real money
saving. On the other hand, the tokens (Trips)
represent the value of the Platform.
This, in our opinion, should be the main
reason any professional should invest in Trips. The tokens are thus a bet on the Platform.
Of course one could not invest and So we have now two indicators of the
simply use the platform once it’s ready value of the project: shares and tokens.
avoiding the risk and reaping the benefits.
The Company will try to stay as small as pos-
sible, while making the platform as big (in
terms of listing and bookings) as possible.
It must be considered that:
― The Company owns today the majori-
ty of tokens (Trips).
― The Company aims to distribute and
sell most of the tokens. When dis-
tributing tokens against work, the
Company trades tokens for platform
value. When selling them it trades
tokens for money which in turn it will
trade for platform value. In either
case the Company tries to stay small,
while making the platform big.
― In the long term the Company will
have just few tokens.
10EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
In this section we outline the
RFI replies to the question: what are
4 major dynamics which will make
the reasons investors should commit?
their investment worthwhile.
3) TOKENS
The question may arise whether it is Companies investing will receive Trips
better to invest in Shares or Tokens. as a bonus at the exchange rate of 0,25 €
per token.
—Trips Community Business Plan —
We don’t have an answer to that as the
market decides the prices and these are E.g a 10.000 € investment gives 40.000
often based on perceptions rather than tokens.
data. No one can control it.
They will presumably be able to use
It may go in both directions: high prices them in the platform as utility tokens
for shares (maybe because they are perceived and resell them on the open the market
as more «real» by the market) or high via crypto exchanges.
prices for tokens (maybe because they
are more easily tradable, have a utility, 4) KNOWLEDGE
are caught up in a speculative operation
or they represent the platform value). Investing in Trips may raise the atten-
tion and interest in what we are doing on
As per today tokens cannot be acquired the investor side, resulting in a knowl-
from the Company so the only purchasable edge acquisition which will later possi-
asset are the shares. bly open to opportunities in this thriving
ecosystem.
Tokens can be acquired directly from
token holders but there is no open market It may be like being there when the
for that yet. internet was still in its infancy: being an
investor and actively involved in an in-
Tokens, on the other hand, can be earned ternet company has often resulted in not
by helping the project. missing other enormous opportunities for
investment, company building or career.
In a later phase we call «Token Sale» the
company will be able to sell tokens.
11EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Open Source
Software.
Trips runs on three layers
of Open Source software.
ORIGIN It will also be Open Source and thus
PROTOCOL available to anyone else who may want
to build alternatives and experiment dif-
—Trips Community Business Plan —
THE BLOCKCHAIN
ferent ways to create a booking platform.
(ETHEREUM)
In the same way we will have access to
THE INTERNET
code and data from other experiments.
This open approach makes the software
a non-differentiator.
On top of this, Trips will add
We will not, in other words, be protected
the «Trips Layer» which will
by our own software patents and closed
be a set of functionalities
source software.
and modifications
specifically conceived Much in the same way as it happened in
for our own use case. the cryptocurrencies space the whole
ecosystem will see a staggering amount
of innovation due to the open approach.
This will place us in a common growing
environment where the difference between
projects won’t be in the software but in
the implementation of the solutions,
the quality of the Community, time to
market and all the other aspects each
project or startup needs to get right to
succeed.
12EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Open
Inventory.
IN TRIPS DATA BELONGS
TO THE USER,
NOT TO THE PLATFORM.
This is the «No Lock In effect».
Compare it with what happens when a Host
—Trips Community Business Plan —
This means that any Host leaves (or is expelled by) an OTA: he/she
has the right to export loses basically everything it took many
pictures, descriptions, prices, years to build.
availabilities, reservation lists,
reviews, profile and so on. One could argue that Reviews belong to
the OTA as much as to the Host, but this
Being part of Trips will thus won’t change the fact that they can’t be
mean to create a personal exported and will be lost.
universal profile, enrich it
(as with reviews) and then This whole open approach does not
replicate it across platforms. make sense in a «winner takes all» mind-
set, which is the classic approach to
building businesses. Only once the ad-
vantages and peculiarities of open systems
are appreciated, the speculative investor
will see some opportunities.
On the other hand users have proven
to understand their advantages: they
join Trips and get ready for the arrival of
many other alternatives, being present on
these is frictionless and opens to new
opportunities in a seamless way.
Even participants leaving the system to
create competing projects enrich the
whole system as a whole, by bringing in
more people in the ecosystem.
13DISCLAIMER
Graceful Growth.
Trips needs to reach a rele-
vant company dimension
to have a meaningful
impact.
The most important KPIs in Trips are:
So growth is really important.
― Commissions Savings: net savings on
—Trips Community Business Plan —
But by not taking VC commissions.
investments at first and
keeping running costs ― Supplier Risk Reduction: this indicates
minimal, we can reduce the increased safety and stability of
the risks of hyper growth one’s business compared to a previous
often associated with situation in which most bookings
startups and in part came from a handful of OTAs and all
responsible for the high the risks associated with that.
mortality rate.
― Token wealth: users acquire Trips tokens
We call this approach with every bookings. Once the tokens
«Graceful Growth». are on the market and have sufficient
liquidity each user will have a mea-
Pressure for hyper growth surable asset.
may still come from other
sources, namely users,
but by removing the main
source of it, VC money,
we hope to avoid the most
damaging aspects
of growth at all cost.
As you may have noticed
these KPIs are measuring
the advantages for the users,
not for Trips Community
OÜ and this is the whole
point: the value created
by the platform has to go
to the users, not to the
company.
14COMPANY OVERVIEW
Company Overview.
Trips Community OÜ
was created in March 2019
and is headquartered
in Tallinn, Estonia.
—Trips Community Business Plan —
Trips Community OÜ He then proceeded to write The next step was to create
is seeking financing of 5M a White Paper theorizing a Community and he was
Euro over the next three a decentralized platform. successful in attracting
years to scale its existing A thorough analysis a small number of forward
operations. of the nascent ecosystem thinkers who, having grasped
Founded by Luca De Giglio made him realize that the the dynamics of tokenization
it is primarily in the business unique long term approach and being introduced to
of bringing to market a new possible was based on open blockchain and cryptocur-
platform model. blockchain and software. rencies, decided to devote
part of their time in working
The company’s CEO This removed completely on the project.
recognised in June 2017 the proprietary software
that the advent of tokenized from the potential unique The next step is to distribute
open distributed platforms advantage proposition and the ownership to the
was going to open a whole assets. Community and finding a
new series of opportunities balance between efficiency
He then proceeded to identify and decentralized decision
in the vacation rentals the Community as the most making.
market. valuable asset of the project.
15COMPANY OVERVIEW
Company and Platform.
The Company represents the
Community.
It is a legal entity whose
primary aim is to launch and
maintain the Platform.
The Platform is the booking
—Trips Community Business Plan —
app: it’s the open source
software, the listings and all
the processes associated
with it.
The Company is functional to the Platform. The company will not aim to::
― Grow to a big size in terms of turnover
Ideally in the long term the Platform
and headcount.
should run without any interference or
control by the Company. ― Extract value from the platform via
commissions or other forms.
If it can exist and be useful without the ― Control the rules.
Company we will have attained a very
high degree of decentralization. The company will aim to:
Due to today’s limitation of governance ― Stay as lean as possible with little
models and software, the only way to turnover and headcount.
launch the project is by starting with a ― Keep its impact on the platform as
centralized, company run, model and small as possible, extracting as little
work towards decentralization. commissions as possible.
― Delegate rules creation and enforcement
to the network as much as possible.
By doing so the hope is that
all the value created by the
platform is absorbed by the
token and thus distributed
amongst all users.
16INSIGHTS.
Business Problems.
As the market is increas-
ingly dominated by the
growing voracity of the
corporate platforms the
following problems arise:
—Trips Community Business Plan —
― REDUCED MARGINS FOR
HOUSING PROVIDERS.
― RISKS ASSOCIATED TO HAVING ― VERY LIMITED
ONLY ONE OR TWO PROVIDERS. DISINTERMEDIATION.
The vast majority of Hosts get most Hosts have tried to attract direct
of their bookings from a single bookings for years, but the results
source. It’s really hard to get, say, 50% are at best poor, as the advantages
of bookings from Airbnb and 50% of booking through a platform are
from Booking.com. many, and it has proven to be very
The algorithms the OTAs use have a clear difficult to convince Guests to avoid
tendency in cannibalizing availabilities. the portals.
The resulting risk is a dependency on Disintermediation, or renting without
one booking provider, which makes these expensive middlemen, seems
the Host position risky by default. an uphill battle.
― HIGH COMMISSION FOR GUESTS.
More and more people are calling the
commissions «the trust tax» as the
real value a platform brings is making
it possible for two parties who do not
know and trust each other to transact
without risk.
The result are high commissions
paid, ultimately, by the Guests.
17INSIGHTS
Description Contingency
of Risks. Plans.
Switch blockchain network
Blockchain technology delays.
or build our own.
Build resilience and try to stay
Delayed mass adoption.
alive until mass adoption arrives.
UX inferiority. Develop our own UX.
Target specifically technologically
Time to market.
mature users at first.
—Trips Community Business Plan —
Keep Host count low and provide
OTAs actively damaging Hosts
enough bookings for the few we have,
participating in decentralized platforms.
while opening to others later.
Increase commissions to the max accept-
Excess managements costs («not so able level. Reduce centralized services
cheap after all»). while increasing network based support.
Expected favouritism: Hosts may expect
the platform to be more understanding
Communicate well this aspect from
since they «own» it, while it has to be
the beginning.
impartial and find the balance between
Hosts and Guests needs.
Increase decentralization making the
Legislation roadblocks. network independent from the Company
and thus unstoppable.
Banks: we have to prepare for the
possibilities of banks freezing or closing Banks: keep the fiat and crypto
our accounts due to exposure to crypto. economics as separate as possible,
This depends a lot on the general sentiment so that a sudden freezing of fiat
in regulatory bodies and the traditional operations does not stop the platform
financial system. In the long run some from working.
sort of backlash is to be expected.
18INSIGHTS
Governance.
The Panel is a dynamic group of 5 people, To improve the quality of judgment, we
taking decisions regarding various aspects prefer the Panel to be partly formed by
of the platform in order to guarantee its users living in the area where the accom-
quality. modation is located.
The Panel is formed dynamically: These local users are able to better inter-
pret the specific problems of the case: if,
Anyone in the network can apply to a for example, there was a strike that caused
panel position from the app. delays, or if the internet did not work in
When there is a case in need of ruling, the the whole neighbourhood (and not just
—Trips Community Business Plan —
system sends a notification to all users in the home of the Host) or if the infor-
who have made themselves available for mation provided by the Host (for example
the role and the firsts who accept are the classic «park for free and easily on the
assigned to the task. road» even if it is not true) were not correct.
Priority will be given to users who have
This is done via the Trips App for which
already demonstrated credibility and
each Panel member will be able to per-
authority based on parameters such as,
form their tasks remotely, provided they
amongst others:
have the time and desire to do so.
― the reviews received for activity as
Instead of having one Guests and Hosts.
employee which must be ― the competence already demonstrated
hired, trained to the specifics in previous Panel experiences.
of the industry and who will
rule on remote edge cases The discussion between the two parties
all day long,we let a small group (Host and Guest) will be made visible to
of Hosts and Guest do it. the Panel.
Consensus will be reached with a majority.
To be part of the Panel one must deposit Upon reaching the judgment, Panel mem-
a certain amount of Trips as a guarantee bers will receive a reward in Trips whose
(with a mechanism similar to the Proof of amount is defined based on the demand
Stake). and supply of the Panel service itself, in a
Once a case has been taken on, Panel way inspired by the mechanism regulating
members are obliged to give an answer Bitcoin fees.
within the defined deadline. In practice, the amount of remuneration is
Those who do not give an answer are defined by the market forces of demand
penalized with the loss of a part of the and supply of the Panel service.
Trips under warranty.
19INSIGHTS
The system would allow the Panel mem-
bers to schedule the vote and cast their
votes within 24 hours.
The judgment requires that the reasons
that led to it are described.
—Trips Community Business Plan —
The other members of the community
can in turn evaluate the judgment
(thumbs up/down) to indicate their opinion
on the judgement, within a set time limit.
The price established for the Panel ruling
will be reduced if a majority of «thumbs
down» exceeds total expressed opinions.
Below a certain approval threshold, the
judgement will return to «not judged»
status and the decision will be canceled.
The process will then start again with
a different Panel.
20SERVICES
Services.
Trips offers a network
curated platform where
users can independently
and safely transact with
—Trips Community Business Plan —
each other.
The low usability offered With the improvement of The final aim is to have
by the platform at the the platform, the underlying users interact amongst
beginning will make it hard blockchain technology and each other completely
for most users to actually users literacy in distributed independently.
profit from it. systems, more and more
For this reason Trips also people will be able to transact
offers Booking Management independently.
to Hosts who, in this case,
do not need to deal with Dapp: «Decentralized App».
the Dapp and simply receive Our Website and App.
bookings from it.
How the Trips Platform Operates.
Trips Community is a marketplace booking layer manages payments and trust, thus
platform for vacation rentals and digital reducing the impact the OTA has on the
nomads/smart workers accommodations, marketplace.
aiming to offer an alternative to the OTAs.
The result is that the whole ecosystem
From the point of view of the users it living on the platform becomes the main
operates exactly as a traditional OTA, beneficiary instead of the platform itself.
while behind the scenes the blockchain
21SERVICES
LISTING QUALITY
In all the years we have
been in this market we have
learned a clear lesson:
high quality listings bring
value to the platform,
while low quality listings
are a cost.
Let’s first define what we
mean by that.
—Trips Community Business Plan —
High Quality: a well run, clean and safe The reasons are the following:
property presented in an honest way on ― It conveys a message of quality of the
the portal. Information such as description, platform.
calendars and prices is accurate and complete.
The Host replies politely in a timely fashion. ― Increase Word of Mouth.
All these characteristics need to be true
― Reduces greatly requests for assis-
to define High Quality.
tance, claims and reimbursements
for damages.
Low Quality: a poorly run, poorly cleaned
and unsafe property presented in a dis- ― Increase Host satisfaction.
honest way on the portal. Information
such as description, calendars and prices Anyone can open an account in Trips
is inaccurate and incomplete. The Host and upload a listing, but its publication
replies rudely with long delays. Only one needs the approval of the Community.
or more of these characteristics need to
be true to define Low Quality. The approval is carried out by the Panel.
We apply a Quality Standard for incoming The approval process includes:
Hosts, filtering out Low Quality listings. ― an analysis of the new listing in Trips.
― an analysis of the same listing in the
other platforms.
― analysis of reviews in other platforms.
22SERVICES
Minimum standards will be established
for features such as (but not limited to):
― Truthfulness of the statements. CUSTOMER CARE
― Completeness of information.
A good example of crowdsourced cus-
― Quality of pictures tomer care is Google.
― Reviews. Users of Gmail, Docs, or any free Goo-
gle product do not have access to Cus-
Note that we do not want to create an
tomer Care via a phone number, chat
elite platform: with this filter we just in-
or other means.
tend to discourage unmotivated Hosts
(who, for example, upload only three low Instead they can find the solution in a
quality photographs) and dishonest ones. wide array of online repositories.
—Trips Community Business Plan —
We are accepting about 60% of the list-
ings at the moment. At the other end of the spectrum there
are companies like Amazon which makes
It is important to note that the evalua- it easy to contact their Customer care.
tion is not about the accommodation,
but about the listing. Trips will adopt a hybrid model where
most Customer care issues are dealt
Even the most basic accommodations
by the Network itself (self service cus-
are welcome.
tomer care) providing the platform to
What matters are aspects such as clean- incentivize the creation of a coopera-
liness, security and compliance with the tive self sustaining ecosystem.
law (within the limits of what can be
verified by third parties). Trips will have a Customer Care team
providing support whose aim will be
to encourage decentralization and find
the balance to achieve maximum cus-
tomer satisfaction.
PATENTS
AND INTELLECTUAL
PROPERTIES
We won’t file any patent or defend
any IP as the overall logic of the
ecosystem we live in does not re-
quire them. Our unique advantage
is not in the unicity of our software
but in the Community we build.
23SERVICES
CUSTOMER
ACQUISITION
AND RETENTION
4. TOKENIZATION
These are the reasons why A Guest who books with a traditional portal
Guests may prefer Trips: for several years does not have great
advantages in the future use of the same
portals, with the exception of classic
1. PRICE loyalty strategies such as the Genius of
A certain customer segment is sensitive Booking.com that reserves dedicated dis-
to a lower price, as long as all other condi- counts to some users.In the same way,the first
tions are comparable. In particular, it will Airbnb customers have not been rewarded
be effective to show potential Guests for their strategic role as Early Adopters.
—Trips Community Business Plan —
and Hosts that the very same accommo- On the other hand, a Guest who uses
dation, for the very same dates, is present Trips will receive a portion of the com-
on other platforms at a higher price. mission in the form of Trips, becoming
immediately part of the network. From
2. PERSONALIZED LOYALTY that moment onwards the Guest will
Platforms like Airbnb and Booking do have an economic incentive and a direct
not send their employees to meet the interest in the success of the platform,
Guests in person. The Hosts does. This a reason to push up the token value.
gives Hosts the opportunity to inform In the event that the token price increases,
Guests personally that they will be able the Guest can also book other accom-
to book the same accommodation at a modations at a fraction of the cost. If,
lower price and in a fairer ecosystem in for example, the Guest receives an equiv-
the future. alent value of 100 USD in Trips and af-
ter six months the Trips price doubles,
3. PAYMENTS IN CRYPTOCURRENCIES she can book accommodations worth 200
Cryptocurrencies holders often prefer USD with the same number of tokens. In
to pay in crypto rather than having to Trips, Early Adopters will acquire signif-
change in cumbersome traditional (Fiat) icant wealth when the token gets price
currency. and liquidity.
Today, a very small part of our potential 5. PRIORITY ON AVAILABILITY
customers have cryptocurrency but this
Some dates will be available only on
percentage is likely to rise in the near future.
Trips, forcing the Guest to choose be-
It is therefore possible that in a few years tween booking on Trips now or wait and
the platforms offering the possibility of hope that the same dates become avail-
paying in cryptocurrency will have an able on the OTAs and are not booked by
edge, at least for a certain initial period. someone else in the meantime.
24SERVICES
6. NETWORK CURATED CONTENT have instant access to our Dapp too.
The average quality and reliability of list- They will be able to make a booking in
ings is higher than in the usual OTAs. It’s Trips with the same account (although
curated by the network in a decentral- to be precise there are no accounts but
ized way. For Guests this means a better public addresses). As a result as the net-
experience. work grows and successful Dapps start to
emerge we will enjoy the network effect.
7. WORK PLATFORM
This may be enhanced by widespread
The tokenization of all processes opens adoption on the ERC725 protocol or
up to the chance of having Guest collab- similar interconnected open blockchain
orations (for example, to contribute to protocols.
the Panel or with a referral campaign).
Being part of Trips therefore means not 10. METASEARCH
—Trips Community Business Plan —
only spending to book accommodations Having a constant and verified lower price
but earning by collaborating. will give us great visibility in metasearch
engines such as Tripping and HometoGo
8. SIMPLIFIED DISINTERMEDIATION with Google’s offering in Maps growing.
Often, when trying to book directly, a
Guest is told by the property “to go to
Booking.com”.
This is because the direct booking pro-
cedure is often challenging for the Host:
there are several options to manage
Unique
(«I’ll block the calendar until tonight»),
payments, cancellations, questions and
Selling Points.
more.
Therefore, Hosts often prefer that the
― The marketplace
booking is made through an OTA. In the
belongs to the users.
presence of a solution like Trips, which
offers the same comforts as OTAs but
― The marketplace strives
a reduced commission, the Host will be
to reduce its footprint
encouraged to direct the Guest to Trips.
on the transactions,
not increase it.
This amounts to a decentralized disinter-
mediation.
― Better alignment
of interests between
9. NETWORK EFFECT
marketplace and users.
The Origin Protocol shares the user base.
Every single user of any Origin dApp will ― No Lock In Effect.
25THE MARKET
The Market.
Guest
Description.
Customer profiles will evolve over increases its usability, we will be able
time in sync with the evolution of to address the needs of an ever growing
—Trips Community Business Plan —
the platform. part of the market.
As the underlying blockchain With this in mind we have divided
technology scales and becomes more the profiles in two main phases: early
mainstream and our own marketplace adopters and mainstream.
EARLY ADOPTERS: MAINSTREAM:
In this phase customers will present one In this phase most UX weaknesses
or more of the following characteristics have been ironed out and we are able
to address every Guest.
― Understand cryptocurrencies.
― Own small amounts of ETH.
― Fairly tech savvy: they are able to install
Metamask or a mobile wallet.
― Open to innovation, will make the extra
effort to cross the small bumps in UX.
26THE MARKET
Host
Description.
—Trips Community Business Plan —
EARLY ADOPTERS: MAINSTREAM:
In this phase Hosts will present one or In this phase the platform will be as
more of the following characteristics: easy to use and as integrated as any
other OTA.
― Understand OTA’s interest are not
aligned with theirs. Being part of it will require little or no
― See the opportunity in a decentral- effort and a few reservations per year
ized platform for their bottom line. will be enough to make it worthwhile.
― Open to innovation: some will trust the Any Host is potential a user.
marketplace to take care of bookings for
them while others will learn to use the
system themselves.
27THE MARKET
Market Segments.
CRYPTO ENTHUSIASTS
At this stage and probably for at least Trips also serves as one of the first real
two more years we will target crypto use cases for Dapps.
enthusiasts.
DIGITAL NOMADS
AND SMART WORKERS
—Trips Community Business Plan —
The founder and some of the Community Digital Nomad and have created a set
members have been Digital Nomads for a of specifications which we will apply to
long time and have seen this way of life the platform.
go from niche to increasingly mainstream. This creates a huge opportunity for us as
Remote workers are expected to sharply we are perfectly placed for both markets.
grow in number in the future. Joining Trips will come with the add-
This market experiences a problem which ed bonus of being introduced to a new,
has not been solved yet: booking online a growing, market.
place for a few months is still difficult. Furthermore Guest acquisition is argu-
The main reason is that Hosts are ably cheaper as the demand is already
focused on tourists and most places are there while the offer is lacking.
not compatible with the specific needs It is important to note that a Host tar-
of the remote worker: listings do not geting Digital Nomads will not in any
clearly specify features such as fast internet way penalise her chances of getting
with clear speed tests, possibility to bookings from tourists as the upgrades
book long term, a comfortable place to improve the property and each of these
work and so on. improvements will make the property
The good news is that just a small upgrade even more attractive for them.
in the accommodation and the listing is As a result, probably our Hosts will see a mix
needed. of short and long term bookings.
Trips will educate Hosts to this new We will target this demographic later on,
opportunity, help them upgrade and when we will have enough compatible
provide Guests for them. listings.
We have extensively researched the
specific accommodation needs of the
28THE MARKET
Target Market.
In Phase I, we will focus on well managed For these reasons they are also the ones
properties which usually come from Hosts in most need of help.
managing 1 to 3 apartments or small Property This profile is also the most reactive to a
Managers managing up to 10 listing. Community proposal where peer to peer
In this sweet spot quality is guaranteed really means that.
by the owner’s personal touch, processes In this phase we will also include some
are mostly not delegated (or if delegated, listings from Property Managers mostly
closely monitored) and the best price/quality to start acquiring data as early on as possible.
ratio is found. We’ll manage them manually with the
These Hosts rarely have sufficient knowledge Managed Bookings Model.
—Trips Community Business Plan —
and scale to optimize pricing and usually Property Managers need software inte-
are underselling their products. grations and in Phase II we will have them.
They are also the easiest to be taken At that point the acquisition of tens of
advantage by the OTAs who do not miss thousands of listings at the time will be
the opportunity. possible.
One of the most striking examples are
Airbnb’s Smart Prices which successfully
convince these Hosts to lower prices to
an illogical extent,often below their bottom line.
Market Size.
The Vacation Rentals Market global market
is estimated at U$ 150 B and growing (1). Italy and the World
Most of the market share is in the hands
― Italy is the 3rd country
of Airbnb and Booking.com
with most listings
in Airbnb
― The Italian market is worth
The global remote worker market expected an estimate U$ 5 B
rise between 2018 and 2023: 18,7% (2)
(1) Global Vacation Rental Market
to be Worth USD 193.89 Billion
by 2021: Technavio
www.businesswire.com
(2) Smart Workers Market.
www.reportlinker.com
29THE MARKET
Competition.
Competition comes from incumbent projects some of which are: Locktrip.com,
OTAs which are extremely well known, Travala.com and other projects based on
have brand fidelity, are well funded and Origin Protocol.
innovative. We foresee the launch of a very high number
We are expecting a growing competition of competing projects.
from decentralized or semi-decentralized
—Trips Community Business Plan —
TRIPS AIRBNB BOOKING.COM EXPEDIA LOCKTRIP
Decentralization 70% No No No 30%
Fees 5% 15-25% 15-20% 15-20% 0%
Market Market Market
Status Beta Beta
leader leader leader
100%
Closed Closed Closed
Code Open Mostly Closed
source source source
Source
Platform Own
Ethereum Web Web Web
Blockchain
Tokenization Yes No No No Yes
Short
Term and Short and
emphasis Long Term
Hotels and Hotels and
on Long Vacation Hotels and
Markets Short Term Short Term
Term Rentals. Short Term
Vacation Vacation
Vacation Recently Vacation Rentals
Rentals Rentals
Rentals. added
Italy first. hotels.
30THE MARKET
Decentralization
of incumbents.
Another source of competition may come them with the same centralized model
from incumbents inserting decentraliza- with some cosmetic changes.
tion elements in their model, allowing in- While these projects won’t change the
house experiments or financing startups bottom line they will actively divert attention
under their wing. from Trips.
We foresee a lot of confusion on Another possible development are hybrid
«decentralized OTAs» or «blockchain OTAs» solutions where only some elements will
where the main aim is to intercept users be decentralized (often just tokenization).
—Trips Community Business Plan —
looking for more fair OTAs and presenting
Competitive
Advantage.
TRIPS COMPETITIVE
ADVANTAGES ARE:
― More balance between the needs of ― More fairness.
Hosts and Guests. We will attain this ― Better opportunities for companies
by removing the negative influence of offering software and services.
high profits and growth requirements.
― Economic incentives: the extra money
we are able to leave on the table will
flow in the user’s pockets.
31THE MARKET
Marketing Strategy.
PART OF THE TOTAL BUDGET WILL BE USED FOR MARKETING.
HERE’S HOW:
YEAR 1 YEAR 1 EXPENSES
Budget € 20.000
—Trips Community Business Plan —
In the same fashion as we’ve been doing so far,
we will organize presentations in various cities, hosted
Roadshows
by local Hosts/Property Managers. The average € 4.000
for Hosts
cost of one meeting is forecasted at around 1.000 €
and reaches about 50 people.
In 2020 we will mostly target the crypto and tech
community who have the necessary background
Roadshows to be able to transact on the not yet user friendly
€ 3.000
for Guests blockchain. As the UX (blockchain in general and
Trips in particular) improves we will gradually enlarge
the target to encompass less tech savvy guests.
We plan to continue teaching our potential users
Webinars to interact with the blockchain via weekly practical
€ 2.000
and podcasts Webinars. These have proven to be very effective
in getting people interested and joining our newsletter.
Participation at con- As we've done since the beginning we will participate,
€ 2.000
ferences for Hosts and possibly speak, at VR industry conferences.
Participation at con- We will participate to the most interesting crypto
€ 3.000
ferences for Guests conferences.
Other than the above, travels will be necessary for one to
Travels € 2.000
one meetings with key industry players, advisors and so on.
Advertisement Click Ads, Social Network, local traditional advertisement. € 4.000
€ 20.000
32THE MARKET
YEAR 2 YEAR 2 EXPENSES
Budget € 100.000
—Trips Community Business Plan —
Roadshows
Increase frequency of roadshows. € 10.000
for Hosts
Mostly crypto and tech community with a growing
Roadshows space for tech (not specifically crypto) as people will
€ 10.000
for Guests probably be more familiar with crypto even if not
being specifically «crypto community».
Webinars
Increase frequency and reach of Webinars € 5.000
and podcasts
Participation at con- Limit our presence to Conferences where we are
€ 6.000
ferences for Hosts speakers.
Participation at con- Increase frequency in general and in tech
€ 20.000
ferences for Guests conferences in particular.
Other than the above, travels will be necessary
Travels for one to one meetings with key industry players, € 10.000
advisors and so on.
Advertisement Increased presence and budget for Advertisement. € 9.000
We will pay a Digital Nomad with many followers
in the social networks, travelling the world
Digital Nomads RDW for a few months, paid by us, to spread the word, € 20.000
select the best Digital Nomads accommodations
and write about it.
€ 100.000
33THE MARKET
YEAR 3 YEAR 3 EXPENSES
Budget € 1.700.000
Roadshows
Increase frequency of roadshows. € 30.000
for Hosts
Roadshows
Enlarge to less technical audencies. € 30.000
for Guests
Webinars
Increase frequency and reach of Webinars. € 20.000
and podcasts
Participation at con- Limit our presence to Conferences where
€ 10.000
ferences for Hosts we are speakers.
Participation at con- Increase frequency in general and in tech
€ 30.000
—Trips Community Business Plan —
ferences for Guests conferences in particular.
Boots in Shows € 20.000
Travels € 30.000
Based on the data collected previously we will be
Advertisement € 800.000
able to increase the advertisement budget efficiently.
Digital Nomads Increase duration and number of DNs according to
€ 200.000
RDW results so far.
Sponsorships People in each city can become Trips ambassadors:
they will become the local representative of the
€ 230.000
Community. We will reward them with Trips and
provide a budget for specific projects.
Referrals program € 50.000
Media € 100.000
Blog and Content
€ 80.000
Marketing
Creative Marketing Commission a Mural, sponsorship rental bikes. € 20.000
Crypto Bounty
€ 10.000
Campaigns
Free Training € 50.000
Gadgets € 20.000
€ 1.700.000
34THE MARKET
Adormo LTD.
from June 2017 Luca has shifted his As it has done from June 2017 Adormo
attention to Trips while being paid by Adormo. will continue running operations for Trips.
Adormo has not profited in any way of the After the first Crowdfunding Adormo will
Trips project, it only has paid salaries and completely cease historical operations
expenses. and become a firm dedicated to Trips op-
Adormo is a funded startup with 3 co-founders erations.
and 1 institutional fund (Eleven) and needs Adormo’s customers will be alerted that
to be paid for the service it provided. from 1st of November 2019 Adormo won’t
—Trips Community Business Plan —
The services provided by Adormo are: serve them anymore.
Luca’s time for Trips went from 25% Adormo LTD will receive a budget from
in June 2017 to 100% in 2019. Trips Community and spend it on its be-
half, with profit.
Alessandro’s time for Trips went from
20% in 2017 to 30% in 2019. Adormo LTD will also deal with bookings
in the Platform. These will generate a 5%
For a total value of about 90.000 € commission which will be completely
The other expenses paid by Adormo for reinvested in operations.
Trips: € 10.000
Total: 100.000 €.
This will be refunded in time, with a pre-
defined percent amount per year in order
to avoid disruption on the operations.
35THE MARKET
—Trips Community Business Plan —
Trips strives to reduces
its financial impact on the
ecosystem.
Why Low The role of commissions
is that of budget makers:
Commissions we use them to collect cash
flow to sustain and grow
will work. the business.
Investors returns are dealt
with tokenization.
This financial strategy
prioritizes the absorption
of value in the tokens.
PRICING AT THIS STAGE WE DO NOT HAVE
Trips will take 5% commission ENOUGH DATA TO CONFIRM THAT 5%
on each transaction. WILL BE ENOUGH TO RUN OPERA-
TIONS BUT WE ARE COUNTING ON
FEES THESE DYNAMICS TO MAKE IT WORK:
Total
― flat, network-based scaling of opera-
Commission tions paid in tokens.
5,0% ― token sales as source of extra funding:
as token price increases so our budget
does.
For the host In case 5% will not be enough, we reserve
95,0% the right to modify our business model.
36OPERATIONS
Operations.
Token Holdings.
It’s important to note that in order to A nominal value and a basic liquidity
be conservative we are assuming 0 value would be extremely beneficial to the
—Trips Community Business Plan —
of tokens for the whole project. project: once the tokens are recognized
as valuable the whole system would enjoy
In a later phase we call «Token Sales» a boost.
the company will be able to sell tokens
to private investors and thus have access On the other hand it has to be considered
to more funds. that a real presence in the market with
listings in exchange and the subsequent
The timing and general feasibility of a to- liquidity cannot be guaranteed as it is mostly
ken sale depends on the crypto market influenced by macroeconomic dynamics
and the regulatory framework. It would in the crypto ecosystem, which are out
be very risky to assume that in the next of our control.
3 years the conditions will be ideal.
In the Use of Funds forecast we are
Thus, the project is built on the assumption assuming 0 value of tokens in order to
that we will not be able to sell any tokens. be conservative in our estimations.
In case the conditions are favourable we We will consider performing a token
will have access to extra funds and will sale when the market conditions and
adjust the strategy accordingly. regulatory frameworks are mature.
Trips holds to date over 60M Trips tokens.
They have no liquidity but have already
been exchanged inside the Community
against Fiat currency so we consider them
to have at least a basic value.
37OPERATIONS
TOKEN SALES 22.050.000 35% The tokens we sell.
RESERVES 8.820.000 14%
Tokens assigned
FOUNDERS 9.450.000 15%
to founders.
Tokens we give to adv/
EMPLOYEES 1.890.000 3% part/legal other than
fiat payments.
ADVISORS 630.000 1%
PARTNERSHIPS 630.000 1%
BOOKINGS 6.300.000 10% Trips for Bookings
Future token sales
ECOSYSTEM DEVELOPMENT 5.040.000 8%
—Trips Community Business Plan —
for ecosystem dev.
AIRDROPS 1.890.000 3% Pure airdrops.
This is what we are
BOUNTY PROGRAM 6.300.000 10% already distributing
to anyone cooperating.
TOTAL MINTED 63.000.000 100%
Software Development.
At the moment the development is totally It is not possible to estimate when this will
made by Origin Protocol. happen but the preconditions are clear:
Several planned basic features are still ― The Ethereum network has reached
missing. enough stability and scalability to be able
to support a high number of transac-
At a certain point we will feel that the tions at an acceptable cost and speed.
time is ripe to start developing our own
features and modifications in order to ― The main features in Origin Protocol
adapt the underlying software to the are deployed and stable enough for
specific needs of the vacation rentals in- us to build on top of them.
dustry and to our own particular strategic ― We have enough funding and are able
view as outlined in the White Paper. to attract the right talent.
A conservative estimate for these to
happen is 2021, while not dismissing the
possibility to reach this stage in 2020.
38THE MANAGEMENT
The Management
Structure.
TRIPS IS ORGANIZED
—Trips Community Business Plan —
IN THREE MAIN LAYERS
THE COMPANY
its main role is to be launcher and facilitator.
The founders and employees work full
time on the project.
THE COMMUNITY
its role is to provide work against tokens
and to participate in the decision making
process with qualified and multi perspective
inputs. It also acts as a main «evangelist»
force. The Community is also encouraged
to invest money in the Company in order
to increase its involvement.
THE PLATFORM
Hosts, Property Managers, Guests,
Software and Services Companies.
They have a plain utilitarian approach:
they use the platform because
it is advantageous for them.
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