5 Things to Consider When Looking for a Travel Buddy Online

Guest Post by Akib Amin

Traveling alone isn’t for everyone. It can be boring, expensive, and unsafe.  At GAFFL, our mission is to help our users find a travel buddy no matter where they are traveling. In the last two years, we have worked with users from more than 150 countries. Here are the five things you should consider before finding a travel buddy online:

1. Identifying the right fit

The ‘Who’ is the most important aspect when it comes to finding the right person to travel together. You need to find the type of person you will be comfortable with while traveling together. For multi-day road trips or adventure travel, you might be sharing cars and lodging as well. Are you looking for someone who is like-minded and very similar to you? Or are you looking for someone who is very different than who you are? These should be the first questions you ask yourself.

2. Asking "why?"

Next, ask yourself why you want a travel companion. Are you looking for a travel buddy to splits costs, to have a shared experience, or to make new friends while traveling? You may want to have a shared experience but you do not really care about the budget. You want to stay in 4-star hotels, but if your travel buddy is only traveling with you to lower costs, they may not want to spend too much money on hotels. There will be a conflict. After connecting to someone, while you are on the planning phase, talk freely about the ‘Why.’

3. Accomodating flexible schedules

Some travelers are super flexible. But, some are not. They may have to
catch a flight, or have a list of places they want to be in on particular dates, etc. If you are a flexible traveler, you should look for someone who is just as flexible as you are.

4. Paying costs upfront

Before you actually meet up with your travel buddy, you may book hotels or rent cars together. If you have paid for all the expenses upfront, what will you do if your travel buddy for some reason never shows up?

To protect users from this ‘no-show’ event, GAFFL recently built ‘Splits’.  Before paying all the costs, you can create a Split Request for your travel buddy. Once your travel buddy pays you, the system holds the money until the trip starts. This way you and your travel buddy both are protected economically.

5. Meeting a real person

Fake profiles are something we cannot ignore anymore. It’s really important to do your own research. Your travel buddy should have a genuine profile pic, social account verification, and ID verification. If they have not completed those steps, you should ask them to do so. You should always meet up with your travel buddy in a public location. If you feel unsafe, you can easily say ‘thank you’ and leave. As a solo traveler, trust your gut feelings.

Akib Amin is the Founder of GAFFL, a travel buddy web-app connecting travelers with similar itineraries to share costs and experiences around the world. You can email him directly at akib@gogaffl.com.