InBed.me – a great social booking site for travelers

The idea of building a social site for travelers came from a trip with a group of people. They met in a Brooklyn hostel and shared an understanding of social differences among different hostels. In order to help people have more exciting, social experiences during their trips, the group formed InBed.me in June 2011 in New York City. “We believe that travel is not only about the places, it is also about the people” says Diego Saez-Gil, the CEO of InBed.me, “That’s why we wanted to create a platform to facilitate these connections”. Within a short time, it won second place out of 20 startups. 

The website integrates a social feature that travelers are provided opportunity to see who will be visiting the same destination at the same time. In this way, travelers can get to know each other online, share tips and plan activities together before they arrive.

InBed.me lists the top hostels, bed and breakfast around the world according to how social they are. Users can choose to sign up for a new account or sign in with their Facebook account. If you sign in with your Facebook account, InBed.me will automatically create your personal profile, such as your profile picture, country and your name. Of course, users have full control of their own information. They also can personalize their profile, and in “About Me” section details about their travels can be added.

After you type in your travel dates and destination, you will see a list of hostels, bed and breakfast. You also can see who will be staying at each place, check out their profiles, and find people who share similar interests with you.

However, I think InBed.me still needs to put more efforts in expanding its hostels list. For instance, I typed Tokyo (a popular traveling place) in the search bar; no hostel and houses are listed. The same search result was shown when I typed Beijing and Shanghai. Such a pity! There are many travelers all over the world visiting China every year. It will be great for them to make friends with people have the same interests before their trip begins.