Earlier this year, I shared 8 ideas with The Hiking Club community that would solve different problems people face when organising self-guided multi-day hikes in the Alps. The clear winner was an accommodation availability checker that would instantly show if planned accommodation stops had availability for any given sequence of dates.
The 8 ideas: This is how the community voted
I’ve certainly experienced how painful it is to individually check 10+ different locations for a sequence of dates, only to find one that is fully booked which causes a re-check or worse…a change to the entire itinerary! Our research has since shown that 87% of people organising multi-day hikes believe this is the biggest problem they face which is further evidenced by it taking them at least 2 weeks to resolve.
Testing a Tool
In August, we launched a basic tool to make accommodation availability checking easier. 60 people signed up to test the tool and we are most grateful to those that provided detailed feedback on their experience - We hope you like the free pair of socks from The Hiking Club ❤️.
New Tool: Accommodation availability checker
Some of the key findings were;
85% would choose another accommodation option nearby if their planned location was fully booked on their chosen date.
83% knew none or only some of the possible accommodation alternatives options at the time of checking availability and booking.
100% of people wanted to check the impact (ie: change in distance/elevation/hiking time) on their hiking itinerary before choosing an alternative accommodation option.
Most people wanted us to focus on features that would improve the overall accommodation planning process rather than on adding more instant availability.
Displaying accommodation locations on a map (rather than on a dashboard) was the top requested feature in the open feedback section.
This feedback highlights how interdependent checking accommodation availability is with itinerary building/adjustments. Making it quicker to check availability without providing a way to resolve the common issue of fully booked locations, means a user can’t easily complete their ultimate goal of booking their trip.
Time to realise a Dream
When I started The Hiking Club 5 years ago, I dreamed of developing an all-in-one platform for self-guided multi-day hikers to create their own personalised itineraries. I’d experienced how painful, time-consuming and manual the process was to do this yourself and was motivated to make it easier.
At that time, I didn’t have the capability to build a platform, industry experience to be credible, or most importantly, a deep understanding of problems multi-day hikers face when planning their own trips. I started collecting/organising all the trail data between Mont Blanc and the Monte Rosa massif, talking to hikers from around the world, and building different products/tools to help them plan their own trips. As I was building momentum and knowledge in year 2, the pandemic shut the travel market down and The Hiking Club moved to survival mode. I continued to invest my own blood sweat and tears in improving my products, which included going through a start-up program that led me to test day hike products away from the Alps. While some success was achieved, it didn’t bring The Hiking Club any closer to building the intuitive all-in-one platform I first dreamed of.
Match made in hiking: Brendan and Nick on the 2022 Break the trail hike
At the end of April, Nick reached out to ask if I wanted any help with building The Hiking Club tech platform. He had been preparing for his first multi-day hikes around Europe and was surprised there wasn't a go-to website or app that let him easily plan and prepare for them. As a developer with GIS/map building experience, he was thinking about creating something for himself when he came across The Hiking Club. Our mission resonated with him so he reached out! After a few video calls and an awesome couple of days together on my break the trail hike, we started working together on the accommodation availability checker mentioned above.
The Hiking Club Platform
With Nick’s skills, my experience, customer validation and supportive market trends, we’re upgrading our product goal from a tactical tool to a new platform for The Hiking Club.
The product vision is for any multi-day hiker to create a personalised itinerary in one session, that is inspiring, achievable, and available to book. We’re designing the product to be a map based planner that intuitively brings in all the information you need to make daily route and accommodation decisions. The output will be an organised list of accommodation you’ve booked/need to book, a detailed itinerary document and personalised GPS map file with your route, food, water, toilets, transport and more, that you can load into your preferred mobile map app for navigating the trail.
We’re planning to launch the first version in Mid December with the 3 trails we support. If you’re excited as we are about the product, register your interest to test the product before we go live here;
Updates on our progress will be shared with The Hiking Club mailing list which you can sign-up for in the footer below. Better get back to it - we have a mountain to climb 🤓
Brendan
Author: Brendan Jones, The Hiking Club
Brendan is a pizza-making, craft beer-loving, peanut butter connoisseur that has been exploring the great outdoors since completing the Duke of Edinburgh Award in high school. He started The Hiking Club to democratise hiking and the benefits that come from spending time in nature.
Appreciation snacks
If you’ve found our free products and content valuable, or our paid products exceeded your expectations, we have created the following range of digital snacks you can buy The Hiking Club team to say thanks.
It’s just like a tip jar only much tastier ❤️
