“Like most of our launches, we’re making this available first in the United States and Canada,” says Goodall. In this case, though, Europe was actually an early mover for Groupon’s travel strategy: Getaways will sit alongside Blink, a European app that Groupon acquired last year when it purchased the Madrid, Spain startup of the same name.īut with the Blink team joining the Getaways engineering team in Seattle, and their expertise in mobile and travel playing a role in the development of the app, it looks like over time the brands might consolidate. The Getaways mobile app, like many of Groupon’s newest products, will be available initially in North America only. Those who download it and book a trip through it can get a 20% discount until November 14 if they use the APP20 promotion code.Īnd it will have some extra features, too, including the ability to Browse by theme, perform map-based searches, a set to flash travel sales with up-to-60-percent-off discounts and editorially selected “market picks” based on “quality and value” that give people Groupon Bucks to use for other Groupon purchases. “Travel will still remain an integral part of the main Groupon app,” says Simon Goodall, VP/GM, Groupon Getaways.Īll the same, Groupon’s trying to push more people to its Getaways app. But for those who can’t face the idea of downloading yet another app, Groupon’ says they’ll still be able to see travel offers in the main Groupon app, too. Much like Mark Zuckerberg’s argument for why Facebook built a standalone Messenger app, there are extra features built into the Getaways app over time that you can’t get elsewhere. Getaways by Groupon, a free app for iOS and Android, bypasses Groupon’s wider focus on local merchant deals to focus only on travel packages and hotels (25,000 offers listed right now), similar to the Groupon site of the same name. Getaways squarely puts Groupon up against the likes of Hotel Tonight, Kayak, TripIt and others that help smartphone users plan trips.

Daily deals site Groupon says that travel is its fastest growing business category, and today it is launching a new mobile app that it hopes will help it capitalize on that more.

Groupon weekend getaways