It is estimated that the average traveler invests 7 hours to plan a trip, and with the vast amount of websites out there to make your travel experience more interactive and seamless, the end result can be more complex and time consuming than anticipated. So with that in mind while researching an upcoming trip to Istanbul, Ruzwana Bashir got busy with her usual stash of guidebooks- as an experienced world traveler, adventure seeker and designated planner amongst her friends- and came up with a simpler solution to all this old-fashioned footwork. So began the creation of Peek, an online travel site that makes it easy for people to find interesting things to do in cities that they are traveling to- think travel guidebook meets hotel concierge meets cruise director– of which Bashir eventually launched last year in San Francisco.
Diverse offerings range from booking a ticket for a museum, a winery tour, or even a film festival, and mixes content with commerce by working with local vendors and taking a share of sales that happen on its platform. A one-stop shop to discover new places or thrilling activities, users can search the site for something cool to do as Peek curates activities that travelers can browse and actually pay for directly on the site. Bashir, educated at Oxford and Harvard Business School, is one of a small number of female CEO’s in the tech world and created the website as a way to share tips from her friends and use them while traveling. Realizing there’s a $26 Billion dollar annual market in the US alone for entertainment and activities, Peek’s investors include Twitter’s Jack Dorsey and Goggle’s Eric Schmidt, among other Silicon Valley heavy hitters.
Peek’s feature Perfect Day allows you to create…just that. In whichever city they choose, users can create their own day long schedules and to-do lists that have been curated by various celebrities such as chef Wolfgang Puck, CNN’s talking-head Piers Morgan and designer Tory Burch, making your itinerary that much more VIP. Peek is now in 15 destinations nationwide, as well as London and Paris with more international cities to come. This well-connected digital concierge is definitely worth taking a peek. www.peek.com
