Valet
A carefully curated, members-only, online travel service for the 'discerning 21st-century traveler'.
Recently founded by Josh Spear and Aaron Rutledge, Valet is a two-fold service that offers its members exclusive rates and benefits at over 80 boutique and luxury hotels across 45 cities, and on the more aspirational side of things, provides an insider-track on where to eat, sleep, shop and play by way of its own city guides.
Influencers and tastemakers such as Rachel Schectman are helping Valet put together stylised map-based guides for each of the cities they have a presence in; New York and Tokyo are currently available with others on the way. There are also plans for a curator's playlist and a GPS-based tip-giver for the iPad.
But Valet isn't open to just anyone who has $199/year to spare. Potential members have to go through a screening process or be invited to join in order to maintain the 'closed network of like-minded and highly influential people' with particular attention being paid to travel habits and the valence one yields online.
In the way that it relies on peer-to-peer recommendation, Valet is reminiscent of Plus One Berlin but moreover its stringent membership criteria vis-a-vis the relatively low subscription fee show you can't put a price on local or expert knowledge.
Discussion