Tom Filippini, a Founder of Exclusive Resorts, to Launch Next Great Place, a New Venture in Online Travel Planning

DENVER, Dec. 15, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Tom Filippini, co-founder of Exclusive Resorts, and business partner Erik Mitisek announced today the launch of Next Great Place, Inc. (www.nextgreatplace.com), an online travel planning company, which streamlines the process of planning unique, complex vacations. Having raised $1 million in seed capital, Next Great Place is launching the BETA version of its platform today and will officially launch in Q1 of 2011.

Next Great Place was born from Filippini's realization that while the Internet is perfectly suited to book flights and hotel rooms, it is overwhelming for travelers who want a vacation rental or unique experience such as a safari. Finding reputable suppliers is daunting and the reality often falls short of the expectation.

"Our vision is to improve the lives of travelers by facilitating their enjoyment of vacations," said Filippini. "We match travelers seeking custom experiences to pre-screened travel suppliers, ultimately creating a more efficient and hassle-free way to plan vacations."

Next Great Place is the first company that is a completely unbiased advocate for the traveler through its reengineering of the travel planning process. A traveler submits a "vacation request," which includes desired destination, budget and number of travelers. Next Great Place submits the request to its vetted suppliers who in turn submit custom travel proposals. The traveler then chooses a proposal and locks in the price.

This concept has several advantages:

• Suppliers are competing for business so there is automatic price competition and transparency.
• Next Great Place personally and fully vets each supplier to ensure the highest quality standards.
• The travel planning process is streamlined while eliminating hassle and uncertainty.

The company will launch with two destinations: Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, and Vail, Colorado, and plans to add at least one destination every four weeks. The company will also add "experience verticals" such as safaris, wine tours, etc.  New destinations and verticals will be based on customer feedback and all suppliers will be vetted using a proprietary 300-point checklist. Next Great Place focuses on family-oriented accommodations such as condo hotel residences and professionally managed individual villas.

The BETA service will be free to the consumer, but upon commercial launch, there will be a modest annual subscription fee to have access to the network.

For more information visit www.NextGreatPlace.com.

SOURCE Next Great Place