A new Philadelphia-based travel venture is entering the fray of online discount sites to offer LGBT travelers the total package when it comes to vacations.
OffTo.com launched at the beginning of this month, providing LGBT tourists with specially tailored and deeply discounted trips.
The site is beginning with five initial packages — to locales such as Atlantic City, Cabo San Lucas and Disney World — with the goal of eventually featuring a steady 20 trips at any given time.
Founding partner Brian Goldthorpe, the only out member of the four-person team operating OffTo, explained that founding partner Dennis Gaudenzi, whom he called the “brains” behind the website, initially conceived of a site that could offer discounted overnight getaways, complete with a host of included activities — an idea that this year was carried out by sites like Groupon and Living Social.
Gaudenzi enlisted Goldthorpe to help dovetail his idea toward a more specific market, and Goldthorpe explored dedicating the site specifically to LGBT travel.
“He wanted to differentiate his site from others, and I came in to help survey the market opportunities,” Goldthorpe said. “I’ve done a lot of volunteer work in the LGBT community and my partner, Bruce Yelk, has worked on a lot of events and works in Philadelphia tourism, so I’ve watched as the gay travel and tourism industry has really evolved in the past few years. So we agreed that creating this model for customized LGBT travel was the best way to go.”
Each package includes hotel accommodations, as well as outings and activities designed to appeal to varying segments of the LGBT travel community.
For instance, one current Atlantic City package includes a two-night hotel stay, free admission for two to a bar, a nightclub and a live-entertainment show — a package valued at $383 that is going for $199. Tourists looking for a more laidback getaway can partake in the Cancun deal, which features a four-night stay that includes a spa gift certificate, discounted golf-course access and shuttle service to and from the resort’s sister properties, as well as the airport, for just $159 — marked down 81 percent from the valued $839.
Goldthorpe said value is one of the key goals of OffTo.
“There are some gay travel sites but we really wanted to take into consideration people’s socioeconomic status,” he said. “These other sites offer expensive trips by and large and are created for this stereotypical, affluent white gay male traveler. So what we’re trying to say is that the LGBT community is much more diverse than that stereotype and we’re looking to offer enough diversity that we’re able to serve all segments of the market equally.”
The great price should not come at the expense of high-quality service, however, Goldthorpe said.
OffTo vets each company with which it partners to ensure LGBT travelers will feel comfortable and welcomed on their trip.
OffTo will work with hotels that have earned approval by LGBT tourism agency Travel Alternatives Group, which Goldthorpe said is the industry standard for LGBT-friendliness. Accreditation by TAG requires the companies offer nondiscrimination policies including sexual orientation, LGBT sensitivity training and domestic-partner benefits, among several other criteria.
Goldthorpe said OffTo, which will work with as many LGBT-owned companies as possible, will also carefully examine accommodations that have not yet earned TAG approval, as well as activities providers, for similar policies and give special attention to a company’s investment in the local LGBT community.
“Our partnership standards enable us to support local businesses and operators who are working to support their local communities,” Goldthorpe said. “That’s something I feel really passionate about. To the degree that we can, we will be working with cities and partner organizations that are really doing great work to help strengthen their local gay communities.”
To purchase an OffTo vacation, travelers select the desired package and pay online, locking in that price, and then the customer must schedule the actual hotel stay on his or her own. While the deals are only available online for purchase for a limited time, the packages, once purchased, will have a shelf-life of several months.
“There’s a window of time during which you can purchase it and a window of time during which you can use it,” Goldthorpe explained. “The timeframes vary from vacation to vacation so it’s important to read the fine print. So you see the deal, buy it when you can because the price is so great, and then can deal with the logistics and scheduling later.”
The initial five packages available fall under the “Fit for Individual” travel category and, when it’s at its optimal operating power, OffTo will also offer “Group Getaways” and “Event-Based Getaways.”
The group packages will include a capped number of available slots for a trip to a particular locale on a certain date, such as a ski trip, where all interested travelers will head to the same resort and partake in the same activities.
The event-styled trips will be centered around LGBT outings that would appeal to certain segments of the community, such as Washington, D.C.’s Cherry Blossom Festival and a women’s arts festival in Miami.
“The events will cross all types, with recreational, artistic, entertainment-based, historic-based and community celebrations,” Goldthorpe said. “So they’re not just group trips but are designed for a group in a particular demographic of the LGBT community. And they’re events that are very popular within that regional LGBT community in that designation, but have never really been marketed to or packaged for LGBT travelers from out of town.”
Down the line, OffTo plans to provide a series of day-trip packages and is launching its first of that kind, a Philadelphia-based trip, in the coming weeks.
Such excursions, Goldthorpe said, will work well for travelers in the Mid-Atlantic region, especially those on a budget.
“Since the economy has yet to really rebound, there are an increasing number of folks who are still taking their vacation time but choosing not to go out and spend several nights in a hotel but instead explore their own city or somewhere closer. So we’ll be offering packages that include things like historic tours and a dining package, and since Philadelphia is in close proximity to D.C. and New York, I think this area will work really well for this type of trip.”
Goldthorpe said he expects OffTo to see significant growth in the coming months, as this new concept of LGBT travel takes hold.
“I believe we’ve identified a business model that is built for the longtime and built on the quality of the vacation experience,” he said. “I’m really excited that we have a deep stable of cities and partners and getaways that we’ll be working with that really serve the entire LGBT continuum in an equal way and allow every gay traveler to be themselves when they travel.”