Recently, I've seen new no-commission marketplace and all-in-one travel apps. On paper, they look promising, zero fees, premium donations, and a promise of high value travelers.
I have found out lately, not everything that glitters is gold. In a world of AI-generated outreach and anonymous stealth mode startups, I'm curious how other operators are protecting their time and data.
For me, the No-Go list is growing, I've started looking for: - Verified team: Can I find the founders on LinkedIn? - Data Transparency: Will they share verified data, active users counts, partner performance metrics? - Intermediary Costs: If there is no commission, what is the catch?
I want to hear from the community: What is your personal 3-point checklist or "vibe check" before you say yes to a new distribution partner? Are you seeing new red flags or any new green flags?
Look up web traffic. Distribution partners need... distribution. If they are starting out and have low numbers, can they explain their advantage and why you should invest your time to support them?
Transparency & verifiable references are a key business asset for any business, startup or not. A business is not just the product but the people behind it.
What the catch with zero-commission? Commission is only one business model. There are many different business models out there amongst platforms. Our own business has 2 main models for instance - we either mark up wholesale prices or charge advertising fees for direct booking referrals.
As the typical investment for taking on a new distributor is a lot of hours work its wise to check the caliber of your new partners first. Who are they, what creds to they bring, who else trusts them, etc.? At the same time every startup needs some momentum to get going. These startups still need credible people behind them even if their pitch isn't quite right yet. Its part of the learning phase startups go through.
When we started we already had 100k in social following, history in the industry, linkedin etc. But we still needed a 'hook' to attract properties. That first pitch was the fact we gave a minimum booking length of 1 week. So our typical bookings were larger than most properties were receiving from their leisure platforms, at the same time they could mix different markets using their inventory systems. Today we have over 50,000 users and 600,000 bots a month using us so this pitch is less important. We also show those numbers, and associated numbers throughout our site, to keep our brand caliber high.
11 hours ago
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What is the first thing you look for before joining a new distribution platform?
What is the first thing you look for before joining a new distribution platform?
was posted by Jyunpei Arazo
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Discussion,Travel Tech,Marketing.
Featured on Feb 9, 2026 (yesterday).
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Recently, I've seen new no-commission marketplace and all-in-one travel apps. On paper, they look promising, zero fees, premium donations, and a promise of high value travelers.
I have found out lately, not everything that glitters is gold. In a world of AI-generated outreach and anonymous stealth mode startups, I'm curious how other operators are protecting their time and data.
For me, the No-Go list is growing, I've started looking for:
- Verified team: Can I find the founders on LinkedIn?
- Data Transparency: Will they share verified data, active users counts, partner performance metrics?
- Intermediary Costs: If there is no commission, what is the catch?
I want to hear from the community: What is your personal 3-point checklist or "vibe check" before you say yes to a new distribution partner?
Are you seeing new red flags or any new green flags?
Look up web traffic. Distribution partners need... distribution. If they are starting out and have low numbers, can they explain their advantage and why you should invest your time to support them?
Transparency & verifiable references are a key business asset for any business, startup or not. A business is not just the product but the people behind it.
What the catch with zero-commission? Commission is only one business model. There are many different business models out there amongst platforms. Our own business has 2 main models for instance - we either mark up wholesale prices or charge advertising fees for direct booking referrals.
As the typical investment for taking on a new distributor is a lot of hours work its wise to check the caliber of your new partners first. Who are they, what creds to they bring, who else trusts them, etc.? At the same time every startup needs some momentum to get going. These startups still need credible people behind them even if their pitch isn't quite right yet. Its part of the learning phase startups go through.
When we started we already had 100k in social following, history in the industry, linkedin etc.
But we still needed a 'hook' to attract properties. That first pitch was the fact we gave a minimum booking length of 1 week. So our typical bookings were larger than most properties were receiving from their leisure platforms, at the same time they could mix different markets using their inventory systems. Today we have over 50,000 users and 600,000 bots a month using us so this pitch is less important. We also show those numbers, and associated numbers throughout our site, to keep our brand caliber high.