Ecosystem Updates

Ask a Local, Find Your People, and See the Room Before You Book

Three features that put actual human beings between you and a bad decision: local knowledge on demand, travellers who are where you are, and a live video tour from the person who owns the place.

The best travel advice has never come from a review score. It comes from somebody who lives there, or somebody who was there last week. This batch is about reaching those people.

Ask a local

Ask a question about a place, and Tratok quietly puts it in front of members who actually live there. Not the whole internet, and not a forum from 2019. People in that city who have opted in to help.

They are asked once, politely, and only a handful of them. If somebody helps you, they can be rewarded for it in TRAT. You can ask Tara to post the question for you and close it again when you have your answer.

Who is around

Opt in and Tratok will tell you when another Tratokian is going to be in the same place at the same time as you. It works from real plans: bookings you have made, trips in your groups, even a trip you are only planning.

What you do with that is entirely up to you. Some people want a dinner companion, some want a diving partner, some want to know a friendly face is in the same town. Nobody is told anything unless they have asked to be.

A live video tour of the place you are considering

This is the one we think changes behaviour. Ask a provider for a tour, and if they accept, you get a live video call with the person who owns the property, walking you round it.

Photographs are chosen. A live walk round is not. You can ask about the noise from the road, the actual size of the second bedroom, and whether the view in picture four is really the view from the balcony.

It uses the same calling machinery as the rest of Tratok, so there is nothing extra to install for either side.

All three are opt in

Local questions and travel companions both have their own switch in your notification settings, off until you turn them on. Nobody appears in anybody’s list without choosing to be there.

Keep exploring Tratok