TripHub, a Seattle-based group oriented travel site, has closed its doors. We originally covered the company’s beta launch in September 2006, when we described it as a good way to help compile and centralize information for a group trip, but questioned if it was viable as a standalone business, especially against other players in the travel space like Yahoo Travel.
The company’s blog post blames the shutdown on a lack of funding, and alludes to a “different outcome” (probably an acquisition offer) that fell through:
“Certainly we made mistakes, and unfortunately we were impacted by factors beyond our control including the current economic environment and state of the travel industry. We came close to realizing a different outcome for our venture but, as the saying goes, close doesn’t count. At the end of the day, despite a well-received, market-leading product and early success with strategic partners such as Orbitz and Alaska Airlines, we simply ran out of money to continue executing on our vision.”
The company was founded in 2005 by Josh Herst, an early member of the Microsoft Expedia team. Last summer it scored a partnership with major travel planning site Orbitz, but apparently this wasn’t enough to help it break away from a host of competitors in the travel space which include TravelMuse and TripSay.
TripHub has been added to the Deadpool.