Frequency of need is a non-issue in the travel space or any other. As has been pointed out, there are many other spaces where lack of frequent visits has not been a barrier to success. Nor is name recall/retention an issue - if you create a great first impression i.e. delight your customer the first time and give them something they really like, they are unlikely to ever forget you.
IMO, the key issues to cracking this space (and these are beyond building a great product that people will find useful which is crazy hard anyway!):
1. Getting new users from free channels/biz dev
2. Getting new users from free channels/biz dev
3. Getting new users from free channels/biz dev
Most startups look at user acquisition as a secondary consideration to the product. In the travel space, it has to be atleast an equal priority, if not an even higher one. You HAVE TO figure out how to hack user acquisition from free (or very cost effective) channels or you will fail. The sooner you start thinking about that the better.
4. Making money. If you can acquire millions of users, this becomes significantly easier.
5. Breadth/size of the space. This is a huge space with tons of variables and different personas. You have to figure out a way to make this work to your advantage. For example, most travel startups, being based in the US, seem to think that users only exist in the US. There are millions of users, especially in fast growing developing countries, who are pretty much being ignored. Another example - if you can figure out how to service the whole space well (and I know thats a BIG if), then at any given time you are going to be catering to some kind of user (increasing your likelihood of reaching millions) unlike a niche service that requires to scale based on a very specific user persona
If you can keep acquiring new users cost effectively and delighting them with your product, you will succeed in the travel space. Most startups cant do this and thats why they fail. they dont fail because of the frequency of need or name recall.
IMO, the key issues to cracking this space (and these are beyond building a great product that people will find useful which is crazy hard anyway!):
1. Getting new users from free channels/biz dev 2. Getting new users from free channels/biz dev 3. Getting new users from free channels/biz dev
Most startups look at user acquisition as a secondary consideration to the product. In the travel space, it has to be atleast an equal priority, if not an even higher one. You HAVE TO figure out how to hack user acquisition from free (or very cost effective) channels or you will fail. The sooner you start thinking about that the better.
4. Making money. If you can acquire millions of users, this becomes significantly easier.
5. Breadth/size of the space. This is a huge space with tons of variables and different personas. You have to figure out a way to make this work to your advantage. For example, most travel startups, being based in the US, seem to think that users only exist in the US. There are millions of users, especially in fast growing developing countries, who are pretty much being ignored. Another example - if you can figure out how to service the whole space well (and I know thats a BIG if), then at any given time you are going to be catering to some kind of user (increasing your likelihood of reaching millions) unlike a niche service that requires to scale based on a very specific user persona
If you can keep acquiring new users cost effectively and delighting them with your product, you will succeed in the travel space. Most startups cant do this and thats why they fail. they dont fail because of the frequency of need or name recall.