TNW Quick Hit
Skyara is a brand new service for those looking to discover and share unique experiences, regardless of one’s location.
Enjoyed: Experiences and prices that one has to see to believe.
Annoyed: Currently featuring experiences only in select cities in California. That said, those looking to sell an experience can use the service, which hopefully will bring Skyara to more cities real soon.
Overall: 4/5
The Details:
Many travel services are available to book a flight, a hotel, a rental car, and typical tourist-type activities. Kayak gets a lot of attention for its features but it is a site suited more for the individual seeking travel agent information without paying travel agent prices. Wanderfly, similar to Kayak, is better in the sense that it is geared towards putting the user in control of one’s travel plans, while still keeping one on budget.
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Then there are sites that offer deals from select merchants, most notably Groupon, and Living Social. While both are nice options for consumers who desire to save, deal-of-the-day sites feature hefty fees for merchants and sometimes stringent requirements for buyers.
Skyara is something new, and something completely different, making it not a travel site per se. The site doesn’t aim to choose flights, lodging, mode of transportation, or other. What Skyara seeks to do is offer experiences one cannot find anywhere else, no matter where you are:
“Our goal is to get all of the screen tanned entrepreneurs and business folks out of the house and trying exciting new things. We want Skyara experiences to become a part of everyone’s weekend schedule. We know people have busy lives, all of us were past management consulting or investment banking professionals so we understand the value of time. We want our users to stop seeing the same movies, shopping at the same malls and eating at the same restaurants. It’s time people do something different and experience all that life has to offer.”
Here’s how it works. Head to Skyara, and if you’re a merchant looking to sell an Experience or an individual looking for something to do, choose your option from the screen below. Conversely, one can search for an Experience in a particular city, and hit “GO”:
Search results are returned and appear as follows:
One can refine returned search results by filtering category, price, distance, ratings, and/or number of votes.
If you discover an experience that sounds like your cup of tea, or coffee as with the case below, click on the experience. One can learn all there is to know about the experience, the seller, ect. before electing to book something.
Sellers have the opportunity to add new experiences, or elect to offer an experience that already exists on Skyara.
“As a buyer, Skyara is completely free to join and use. As a seller, there are no listing fees or monthly fees. Skyara takes a 12% booking fee, which includes credit card processing and our service fee, only when a customer makes a confirmed booking for your service.”
Skyara’s fees for sellers are far less than those garnered by services like Groupon and Living Social, making it a grand service for sellers and buyers alike.
Other really neat features of Skyara include: a complete scheduling and payments system, a (Digg-like) experience voting system, complete instant search and browse functionality, user reviews, following, and messaging capabilities.
Skyara is off to a great start, and my sincere hope is that it spreads like wildfire (probably not the best analogy to make when discussing California). To that end, the great team at Skyara, Jonathan, Dennis, and Steven, have offered something for you, The Next Web reader:
Be one of the first 100 readers to register on Skyara using the referal code: THENEXTWEB, and you’ll receive $5 off your first experience!
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