A Vacation Rental Marketplace for Waterfront Properties
Planning a family getaway near a lake or waterfront can be complicated—coordinating schedules, finding the right rental, and ensuring the property fits everyone’s needs takes time. Lake.com simplifies the process by providing a dedicated platform for vacation rentals on or near the water.
Founded by Stephanie Ciccarelli and David Ciccarelli, Lake.com features a curated selection of lake houses, cabins, and waterfront properties across North America and Europe. The platform is designed to deliver a seamless user experience, helping families find their perfect getaway while also supporting property owners and managers who share Lake.com’s commitment to quality and family-friendly travel.
Built on the founders’ love of nature and lakes, Lake.com emphasizes customer experience, community, and memorable outdoor vacations. The platform enables families to plan trips they can look forward to year-round, while connecting with properties that align with their values.
“As a start-up in an established industry, we are excited to join Travel Tech’s Membership Program to connect with peers, gain visibility, and showcase what makes Lake.com different,” said Stephanie Ciccarelli, Co-Founder of Lake.com.
With its focus on waterfront experiences and family connection, Lake.com is redefining how travelers discover and book lakeside adventures.
Adventures Booked Easy
Vibe Adventures is redefining how travelers discover and book multi-day adventure travel. Founded by travel industry professionals, the company is built on deep industry expertise and a simple belief: the biggest barrier to meaningful travel isn’t a lack of experiences, but the complexity of booking them. Travelers can find great multi-day tours, but pairing them with affordable, convenient flights often requires hours of manual research across multiple platforms—erasing the perceived deal once flights are added.
Vibe Adventures was created to solve this through technology. Rather than operating tours, the company is building a travel-tech platform that dynamically combines organized multi-day adventure tours with real-time flight availability. The result is a single, seamless booking flow where travelers can instantly see the best-value tour-and-flight combinations—without juggling tabs, dates, or pricing.
“Our goal is to remove booking fatigue,” said Alex Veka, Founder & CEO of Vibe Adventures. “People know the kind of trips they want—immersive, experience-driven, and well organized—but the tools to book them efficiently haven’t existed. We’re building that infrastructure.”
The platform connects to a global inventory of thousands of multi-day tours across 160+ countries, together with global flight options, enabling travelers to compare and book complete adventure packages in minutes. It’s built for travelers who want more than traditional beach holidays, while still valuing simplicity, transparency, and price efficiency.
As the company scales, Vibe Adventures sees industry collaboration as essential. By joining Travel Tech’s Start-Up Membership Program, the team is connecting with distribution partners, technology providers, and like-minded innovators to help build the future of adventure travel booking.
“Travel Tech provides a powerful ecosystem for shared learning, product collaboration, and meaningful partnerships,” said Alex Veka. “Being part of this community helps us accelerate our mission to make adventure travel easier and more accessible for everyone.”
Be Connected Everywhere
A reliable internet connection can make or break a travel experience. Whether discovering a new restaurant, booking activities, or navigating an unfamiliar city, travelers need connectivity that is secure, seamless, and always available. CleverFi was founded to make that possible.
Created in 2024 by Mario Soave, CleverFi enables travelers to automatically and securely connect to WiFi by extending their home WiFi network to anywhere in the world. The result is a stable, private, and effortless connection—eliminating the frustration of entering passwords, navigating unfamiliar networks, or worrying about cybersecurity risks.
Travelers today often bring far more than a phone or laptop—they’re carrying smartwatches, baby monitors, streaming devices, and even voice assistants. CleverFi ensures these devices “feel at home” wherever a traveler goes, without the need to reconnect, reconfigure, or risk placing sensitive devices on shared guest networks.
CleverFi also supports accessibility and digital inclusion. Many travelers with disabilities rely on connected assistive technologies for daily autonomy, and unpredictable WiFi can create real barriers. By making connectivity consistent, secure, and simple, CleverFi helps preserve that independence and ensures everyone can participate more fully in their travel experiences.
“We are excited to join Travel Tech’s Start-Up Membership Program to be part of an ecosystem that allows us to learn from peers, build partnerships, and spread the word about what we do,” said Mario Soave, Founder of CleverFi.
By reimagining how travelers connect, CleverFi is setting a new standard for convenience, safety, and peace of mind on the road.
Vacation Management All in One Place
Coordinating travel or shared stays with friends, family, or colleagues can quickly become complicated—especially when each part of the experience lives on a different platform. HousMthr was built to change that.
Founded in 2023 by CEO Lou Severine and CTO Will Schmahl, both seasoned technology builders and Airbnb superhosts, HousMthr is an AI-powered group management platform designed to make every trip or shared living experience easier. Whether it’s a family vacation, festival weekend, event, or dorm stay, HousMthr helps users plan, organize, and manage all aspects of their accommodation and group logistics in one place.
From room assignments and shared expenses to tasks, calendars, and group chats, the platform streamlines coordination before and during a trip. Built-in Medical & Safety tools and features like Explore and Shop Local also help travelers connect with their surroundings and communities—extending HousMthr’s impact beyond just logistics.
“By joining Travel Tech’s Start-Up Membership Program, we look forward to building the right partnerships and integrations that help us scale and connect within the larger travel ecosystem,” said Will Schmahl, Co-Founder and CTO of HousMthr.
Looking ahead, HousMthr plans to expand its AI capabilities to personalize trip planning and enhance user experiences. The team’s mission is clear: to make group travel and shared stays smoother, safer, and more connected—for everyone, everywhere.
Traveling should be about experiences, not logistics — yet keeping family and friends updated often means juggling multiple apps where your data is fed to algorithms and advertisers.
Frequent traveler Teemu Kolehmainen recognized this problem firsthand. TripTrix isn’t a service where one can purchase tickets; rather, TripTrix’s role begins after the bookings are made, allowing the business or premium traveler the luxury of not having to worry about oversharing and security. TripTrix provides a secure, private space to share locations, automated status updates, and on-the-go experiences with only the people you choose.
“Travel and social media apps collect massive amounts of personal data, but frequent travelers are getting privacy-conscious and want control over who sees their travel details,” Teemu Kolehmainen, Founder of TripTrix, said. “We are building the first secure and encrypted platform specifically for sharing travel experiences with family and close friends – real-time photos, locations, and updates in one private place. It’s like having a secure and flexible family travel channel that nobody else can access.”
“As a new player in the travel tech industry, TripTrix is excited to join Travel Tech’s Start-Up Member Program so the team can be connected to the industry in a more formal manner and have greater representation of TripTrix,” said Kolehmainen.
Improving the Guest Experience Through Smarter, Social Communication
Clear communication is the foundation of a great travel experience — and when it breaks down, it doesn’t just frustrate guests, it also impacts staff, reviews, and loyalty. Melanie Brewer and John Beuchert founded Away Together to improve the guest experience through smarter, more connected communication.
Away Together is a mobile platform that allows hosts to collect commissions through their own mobile application while allowing travelers to connect with each other and with their lodging host in real time. Guests can view and share local recommendations for restaurants, cultural events, and attractions, while also receiving real-time updates from property managers — no more missed announcements or paper slips under doors.
For hoteliers and event hosts, the most expensive room is the empty one. By helping hotels, resorts, and event organizers deliver better communication and personalized guest experiences, Away Together fills those rooms. The application supports local economies, boosts satisfaction, and provides hosts with flexible, easy-to-implement tools to maintain return trips and online reviews. Away Together also generates revenue through excursion booking captures as well as other revenue streams – without the expense of application development. The primary focus of Away Together is upsell opportunities and commission captures being focused and trackable building marketing efficiency and revenue.
“We’re huge believers that you can learn from anyone — whether it’s a janitor or a CEO,” said Melanie Brewer, Co-Founder of Away Together. “For us, Travel Tech’s Advocate Member Program is about honest feedback and meaningful connections. It’s putting us in the room with people who challenge us, support us, and help move our product forward.”
Blending innovation with a passion for exploration, Walkntours is redefining the way travelers experience new destinations.
As an avid world traveler, Gregory Dunn has toured cities around the world. Like many, he noticed that group tours are often inconsistent, inflexible and way too touristy. After digging deeper, he discovered that 50% of travelers don’t like group tours. To fill the gap, Greg founded Walkntours, an app that delivers immersive, hands free, GPS-enabled, self-guided audio walking tours.
The app came to life during a business trip to Paris. While wandering the city, Greg found himself standing in front of the Palais Garnier—the famous Paris Opera House—wondering, “What happened here? Who walked these steps? Why does it matter?” Instinctively, he reached for his phone, thinking, “There must be a tour app for this.” But there wasn’t—so he built one.
“WalknTours is essentially a tour guide in your pocket,” Greg explains. “It gives travelers the freedom to explore on their own schedule—go at your own pace, stop and start whenever you like, and skip the tour guide with the flag and microphone. Each tour leads you to the must-see landmarks, hidden gems, and local favorites, sharing their stories as you walk.”
Now available in over 150 cities and rapidly expanding, WalknTours empowers travelers to take control of their journeys, discovering the world one step at a time.
“As a new member of Travel Tech’s Advocate Program, I’ve had the opportunity to meet so many people and build relationships, connecting over our shared passion for travel,” explained Greg. “As a start-up, connections are probably the most important thing and to be able to sit down together to build a relationship with established players in the industry like Tripadvisor or Airbnb has been invaluable.”
With AI and social media quickly taking over the travel industry, Nowy makes it easy to connect content online and travel planning.
Nowy is the first and only travel app that helps convert social media content into personalized, bookable travel itineraries that help simplify the travel planning process, saving travelers time and money. Nowy helps to address the information overload when travel planning by using AI to do the “dummy” work and keep the traveler in charge of the decision-making process.
“The goal of Nowy is to help inspire extraordinary travel experiences and provide a one-stop shop for travelers to get ideas with complete planning in one place,” explained Branda Fan, Founder and CEO of Nowy.
“As a start-up, one of the most important things to us is community and we are excited to join Travel Tech’s Advocate Member Program for that reason,” Fan said. “We look forward to networking with other travel founders, start-ups and experts to learn how to reach different audiences, understand various sectors and stay up-to-date on the latest policy and industry trends.”
We’ve all been there ― your flight’s canceled or delayed, your bag is lost, and you’re left trying to salvage your trip. Often, the last thing on your mind in situations like this is submitting a claim to ensure you’re properly compensated by the airline. Applying for flight compensation can be time-consuming and complex, varying by airline and geography.
Navigating this process can be stressful, and many passengers throw up their arms in defeat.
That’s where AirHelp comes in. AirHelp is the world’s largest tech company that helps passengers navigate through flight disruptions. They do the leg work for passengers and take the hassle out of applying for compensation. Since launching in 2013, AirHelp has served more than 2.2 million passengers worldwide.
AirHelp goes beyond just helping passengers navigate the current patchwork of rules and regulations around flight compensation. They understand the need for proactive advocacy and sound public policy and regulation to ensure the best travel experience possible. That’s why they’ve joined the Travel Tech Association (Travel Tech).
“By joining Travel Tech, we’ll be able to increase awareness of traveler rights and raise the voice of travelers with policymakers and regulators in the United States,” said Tomasz Pawliszyn, CEO for AirHelp.
Wednesday, April 29, 2026 — The Travel Technology Association (Travel Tech), a non-profit dedicated to promoting and protecting the travel technology industry, hosted its first successful advocacy day in Albany this week, engaging directly with New York State policymakers on issues critical to the future of travel technology. Throughout the day, Travel Tech members met […]
