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Thelma and Louise Club

Top 3 facts

  1. The site now has over 2000 new members from all over the world since the relaunch in 2010
  2. Thelma and Louise was rated one of the top 15 travel sites in Sainsbury's Magazine
  3. The site has had over 180 trip ideas, 50 travel guides and 10 events added since its launch in 2010

T&L Twitter Feed

A successful women-only network where members can meet, interact and find travel companions for holidays, Thelma and Louise is a thriving online community of women worldwide

Thelma & Louise is a unique concept designed to bring women together, foster friendships and inspire sharing through travel and experiences. The goal of the site is to encourage its women-only audience to engage with one another through travel tools and the user-generated content. In order to expand their community and interaction, Thelma & Louise needed a dynamic platform that would connect and motivate users through innovative research tools, ideas and experiences of other women.

The end result is a completely upgraded, progressive new site with varying elements of research and community interaction. As the user-generated content grows, so will the subscribers. Thelma & Louise will be credited for inspiring many trips and fostering rich and interesting connections among women.

The site now has over 2000 new members from all over the world since the relaunch and we are growing.

Special thanks to: Stephen Barling and Ana Maria Dora

Weblink: www.thelmandlouise.com

Key features include:

User profiles

Each user is able to keep track of their content and online status through customised profiles which include wall (news feeds), user status, profile feeds and full Skype integration.

Users are able to make a friends list which appears on their profile, they click ‘become name friend’ – an automated message is then sent to the user with their request, it is then up to them whether they accept or decline the offer.

Travel Guides

Users are able to add travel guides; they act as a recommendation for a particular location, hotels or general holiday destination.

The idea was the create a content type which allows women to share experiences and ideas, impart their knowledge, inspire others and together, develop a useful resource for each and every member to use.

Users can upload photos, comment and rate the travel guides.

Trip Ideas

The purpose behind Thelma and Louise is to encourage the sharing of ideas and ease the search for travel companions. Trip ideas are a content type which allows users to suggest travelling ideas, which other members can join.

You can suggest a group size, date and duration, users are then able to join to group and discuss the trip idea.

Some trip ideas actually take place.

News Articles

The purpose behind Thelma and Louise is to encourage the sharing of ideas and ease the search for travel companions. Trip ideas are a content type which allows users to suggest travelling ideas, which other members can join. You can suggest a group size, date and duration.

No wall posts available.

I was faced with the challenge to design and deliver a brand new community-driven travel site that required not only deep technical skills but also an astute knowledge of emerging web trends, business models and social strategies. It was clear to me that I needed a web ‘partner’ and not just a supplier. After a long search, we identified BrightLemon as the people for the job.

Using Drupal, an open source CMS, we set out on the journey with BrightLemon to build a rich social site that included all the features you’d expect from today’s popular social sites plus items specific to our value proposition. This included member generated travel guides with ‘save as draft’ options, integration with a complex hotel rate checking API and advanced ‘travel companion’ search using the latest search technology.

Has it been a success? We are still in the early stages of our site launch but our user feedback and customer growth is impressive. Over 95% of our users rated the good or very good, over 65% will use the site a bit or a lot more than before and over 2000 people have joined since it’s launch just a few weeks ago. That says it all really!

Stephen Barling

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