Rand McNally Buys Tripology in Move to Expand Into Travel Planning

Rand McNally  has acquired the travel search site Tripology as part of a move by the map maker to expand into the travel planning space, its spokesperson told Travel Market Report. Tripology had been searching for funding since losing its financial backer last month forcing it to put the Web site on hiatus.

Rand McNally spokesperson Amy Krouse said that the Chiacgo-based map making company plans to expand into the travel planning space and will announced new applications, features and products as it is able to make them.

John Peters, CTC, CEO of Tripology, the interactive travel referral service focused on connecting travelers with travel specialists, hinted at the name of the acquirer in a blog post on the site earlier this week.

One travel agent, Rosemarie Danielson, who is a member of the HBTAcommunity.com site, named the buyer from the clues she discerned in Peters’ blog posting, in which the first letters of each line spelled out “R-A-N-D M-c-N-A-L-L-Y.”  To see for yourself, visit http://agentblog.tripology.com/.

She wrote, “I was a teacher in my former life. When I [saw] the word ‘and’ capitalized at the beginning of the sentence, my hackles went up. So I looked at the structure of the ‘riddle’ and could see the capitalization of all the lines except the ‘c’ in calling. Thus, I looked at the first letters of every line and it just jumped out at me.”

At posting time, Rand McNally’s spokesperson, Amy Krouse, had not returned Travel Market Report’s call asking for comment.

In his blog, Peters stated, “Tripology has found a new home and I couldn’t be happier. More details to come in the next few days. Free leads continue for a bit longer! Enjoy!”

Some of the agents in the forum said that since the site went dormant and laid off its staff after losing its financial backing in February, Tripology leads, albeit free, have all but stopped. Others however, said they have received some “quality” business from the free leads and expect leads will increase once the site is at full strength.

Rand McNally, which has a travel component powered by Kayak on its Web site at www.randmcnally.com, is owned by Patriarch Partners, headed by CEO Lyn Tilton, who specializes in financing small and medium size enterprises.

According to its Web site, patriarchpartners.com, “Patriarch has positioned itself as a proactive partner to companies during periods of operational, industrial and economic transformation.”