Anyone who’s been in a travel advisor-only Facebook group knows the post: An advisor is looking for X kind of supplier in X destination. They haven’t used any personally or for clients, and they need some guidance from their peers.

The answers tend to have varying levels of usefulness. Sometimes, agents post that they’re “following” the discussion. Sometimes, someone has the perfect match. Most of the answers are somewhere in between those two ends of the spectrum.

Enter the Hive, a new platform from travel advisor Whitney Shindelar, owner and founder of Undiscovered Sunsets in Santa Clarita, Calif. Shindelar is also the host of the “Masters in Travel” podcast and community for advisors.

Last August, she started building the Hive, a technology platform to help travel advisors with research.

“Currently, we have a CRM (customer relationship management) like TravelJoy or TravelContact that is industry-specific,” Shindelar said. “We have itinerary builders to deliver the final product to our clients, like Travefy and Axus. But we don’t have any specific technology that supports all of the research and knowledge-gathering and due diligence that we are doing on a daily basis. The Hive will fill that technology gap.”

(Travel Weekly and Axus share the same parent company, Northstar Travel Group.)

On the Hive, users will find listings for all suppliers. Right now, the suppliers on the platform are those Shindelar has found and uploaded herself, but any user at any time can add a supplier to the platform. 

“On the platform, advisors can share feedback,” Shindelar said. “They can share their experiences with each of the suppliers. This is, in a sense, a way to put the power and the decision-making back into the hands of the advisors.”

Shindelar is in the process of soliciting detailed information from suppliers that’s hyper-relevant to travel advisors via a form the supplier fills out (for instance, if a hotel has connecting rooms or which room categories connect).

Advisors can review a supplier publicly on the platform for other users to see, as well as leave private notes for themselves.

Hive users can search for suppliers based on a number of things, including affiliation, location and beyond. 

Advisors will drive platform’s growth

Over time, the site will build more and more information as suppliers and advisor ratings are added.

“This is just the beginning,” Shindelar said. “It’s only going to grow with everybody’s insights being added into the platform. I’m just really excited to see how it impacts the day-to-day workflow of travel advisors.”

Shindelar has been working with a team of about 10 to get the Hive up and running. It opened to a small group of agents in late June and will become more widely available in July.

The excitement level about the Hive is high from both advisors and suppliers, Shindelar said. While the suppliers won’t be able to access the platform themselves, they will benefit from advisors finding information there instead of asking directly.

“I haven’t had a single conversation with a supplier who didn’t feel good about what we’re building,” she said. “Many of them are like, ‘Wow, I totally know why you need this because we’re getting these questions all the time.'”

Advisors can sign up for a demo of the Hive. Demos will begin when the site opens more widely on July 2. Advisors who sign up that week will benefit from a special price of $32 per user, per month. Regular pricing, which will kick in after the week of July 2, is $37 per user, per month.

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