Travel has always been about discovery, connection, and experiences. But for today’s Millennials and Gen Z travelers, planning a trip is no longer just about logistics—it’s about inspiration, collaboration, and authenticity. Enter Travereel, a social travel planning app that blends the utility of booking platforms with the engaging dynamics of short-form video content.

With its minimum viable product (MVP) already making waves, Travereel demonstrates how user insights, behavior analytics, and research-driven strategies can reshape the future of travel tech. This business case explores how the app’s vision, strategy, and data-driven approach set it apart in a competitive market.

From Local to Global: Travereel’s Ambitious Vision

Launched in the Philippines, Travereel’s mission is clear: start local, scale global. By first capturing the Southeast Asian market, the app is building momentum to eventually expand worldwide.

What makes Travereel different? It merges two worlds:

• Traditional travel booking platforms: with tools for hotels and curated activities.
• Social media engagement: with user-generated videos inspired by platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels.

This hybrid approach makes travel planning both functional and social, but it also means the app must continuously validate its concept with an audience that expects seamless, intuitive, and shareable digital experiences.

The Strategic Roadmap: Setting Clear Goals

Travereel’s MVP launch was guided by a set of measurable objectives:

• 5,000 users within the first year.
• 100 confirmed bookings.
• 60% engagement rate, validating user interest in social and collaborative features.

To align the entire team, Travereel partnered with Lizard Global to conduct an OKR workshop. This session helped define shared goals, clarify responsibilities, and ensure every initiative supported the bigger picture—turning Travereel from an idea into a scalable product.

Harnessing Data: A Comprehensive Analytics Approach

User insights powered nearly every decision in Travereel’s development. To truly understand how users engaged with the app, the team deployed a multi-layered analytics strategy:

• UXCam: tracked user journeys and behavior.
• Cohort analysis: evaluated retention and churn trends over time.
• Funnel analysis: identified drop-offs during key actions like hotel searches and booking confirmations.
• Heatmaps: revealed how users interacted with booking buttons and navigation elements.
• Crashlytics: flagged performance issues such as crashes and UI freezes.

Using the Lean Analytics Framework, the team prioritized metrics relevant to Travereel’s “stickiness” phase—downloads, registrations, engagement rates, video uploads, and bookings. This data-driven approach ensured focus remained on retention and engagement, the lifeblood of any social platform.

Validating the Vision: Research-Driven Feature Development

One of Travereel’s boldest features is its collaborative trip planning tool. Recognizing the high development cost and risk of low adoption, the team took a careful, research-driven path:

• Built a prototype showcasing itinerary planning, budget tracking, bill splitting, and collaborative editing.
• Conducted user testing to gather direct feedback.
• Adjusted priorities to create a “minimum lovable product” that balanced usability with user delight.

This validation process minimized risks while ensuring features aligned with real user needs.

Key Insights and Product Improvements

Through analytics and testing, several important insights emerged:

• 55% monthly retention rate – outperforming the industry benchmark of 36%.
• 76% engagement with social features like video browsing.
• 62% engagement with hotel search features.
• 40% drop-off during the booking funnel, considered healthy.
• 80% drop-off at the payment step, revealing a critical improvement opportunity.

Based on these findings, the team introduced impactful improvements:

• Push notification system to increase retention.
• Video category filters for better content discovery.
• Streamlined hotel search flow with upfront deals and affordable pricing.
• Hotel API integration to expand offerings.
• Backend optimization with Sentry, reducing crash rates from 2% to nearly zero.
• Positive user feedback on the itinerary planning prototype, paving the way for future development.

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Business Outcomes

Travereel’s MVP success demonstrates the power of combining data-driven decision-making with user-centric design. The app not only met its initial benchmarks but also positioned itself as a serious player in the social travel planning and booking market.

More importantly, Travereel’s founders recognized the value of working with Lizard Global, not just as a development partner but as a strategic collaborator—ensuring every step was guided by expertise, research, and actionable insights.

Lessons Learned

The journey of Travereel highlights several key takeaways for startups and businesses alike:

• Early behavior analysis is essential for uncovering product gaps and opportunities.
• Validating MVP features through research and prototyping saves resources and aligns the product with user needs.
• Setting OKRs ensures all stakeholders remain aligned and focused on growth.
• Retention and engagement metrics are stronger indicators of success than downloads alone.

These lessons underscore the importance of building a product strategy that prioritizes users at every stage.

How Lizard Global Helps Businesses Build User-Centric Products

Travereel’s success story is just one example of how the right development partner can transform an idea into a thriving product. At Lizard Global, we specialize in:

• User behavior analytics to guide design and strategy.
• MVP development and validation to minimize risks.
• Seamless UI/UX design tailored to user expectations.
• Data-driven improvements that fuel growth and retention.

Whether you’re building a travel app, a SaaS platform, or a digital marketplace, our team ensures your product is not just functional—but loved by users. Together, let's make your digital vision come to fruition