Giving travelers the opportunity to save

As you may have noticed, airfare prices and hotel rates are highly volatile. The same trans-continental flight or 5-star hotel may be offered for $450 one day and $250 the next. It's a sophisticated game of "supply and demand" being orchestrated by automated yield management systems that are designed to do one thing: maximize revenue. So, how is the average traveler supposed to know when to book a flight or hotel - and feel confident that they're getting a good deal? Use Yapta.

Yapta is intended to help you get a handle on fluctuating travel prices so that you know when to "buy low". Yapta conducts daily price checks on the specific flights and hotels that you choose, and alerts you when prices drop or when they fall within your budget.

Already booked an airline ticket? Yapta can still help you save. Most U.S. airlines have "guaranteed airfare" policies that enable you to claim a travel credit if the price of your flight drops after booking it. Not many people know that the policy even exists - nor do they bother to check the price of their flight after purchasing it. Yapta will track the price of the flights you've already booked and - if the price drops below what you paid - it will alert you when you're eligible for a refund or travel credit from the airline.

Since Yapta was launched in May 2007, the site has alerted hundreds-of-thousands of travelers to more than $150 million in travel savings. Here a look at the people behind Yapta who are responsible for it being one of the fastest growing travel sites on the Web:

Founders

Tom Romary, CEO & Co-Founder

For the past 20 years, Tom has served as a marketing and general management executive for some of the nation's premier consumer brands, from e-commerce to airlines. Before serving as CEO of Yapta, Inc., Tom was Vice President of Marketing at Alaska Airlines (NYSE: ALK) with responsibility for over $250MM in annual revenue and over 2,400 employees. He led Alaska's frequent flier program, customer care call centers, product marketing, advertising and promotions, airport club rooms, and in-flight service and catering. He also launched numerous product innovations, including the digEplayer, an award winning hand-held in-flight entertainment system.

Prior to Alaska Airlines, he was Vice President of Consumer Marketing at Real Networks, where he helped launch the company's music and premium video subscription services. Before his years at Real Networks, Tom served as Vice President of Marketing at Fogdog, Inc. (NASDAQ: FOGD), helping the sporting goods e-retailer grow annual sales from $100K to over $30MM and playing a key role in its successful 1999 IPO. Earlier in his career, he held various management and director roles at Electronic Arts/Walt Disney Software and General Mills.

Tom has an engineering degree from Duke University and an MBA from Harvard. He is an avid traveler and outdoorsman, having climbed Mt. McKinley in Alaska and Cho Oyu in the Himalayas. He lives in Seattle with his wife and three boys.

Brett Allsop, Co-Founder

Brett Allsop passed away in a tragic car accident on August 18, 2009 at the age of 38. He was a seasoned entrepreneur with a passion for building consumer Internet and software businesses - including Yapta where he served as Chairman and VP of Strategy. He started his career by founding Fogdog, Inc. and eventually growing the company into the Internet's leading sporting goods retailer with more than 180 employees and over $9MM in quarterly sales. Following the acquisition of Fogdog by GSI Commerce (NASDAQ: GSIC) in 2000, Brett served as part of the Investment team at Amadeus Capital in London where he focused on evaluating potential investment opportunities in the software field - specifically enterprise, wireless, consumer and SME opportunities. In 2003, Brett became President of Allsop Inc., designers and builders of unique computer and consumer electronic accessories with offices in the United States, Ireland, and China. He oversaw product development, implementation and sales at major retailers across North America and Europe.

Brett was a graduate of Stanford University's Engineering program and enjoyed running, sailing, skiing and traveling.

Executive Team

Michael Carreno, Director of Engineering

Michael is a broadly-skilled engineer, having helped architect some of the Web's most popular consumer software and services, from music to travel. As the person responsible for the technical development of Yapta.com, his work has been critical to the site's success since it first launched in May 2007. His team's innovations and achievements at Yapta have earned the attention from numerous publications and industry organizations as among "the best" on the Web. Before joining Yapta, he served as a Software Design Engineer at Judy's Book, Inc. where he helped develop the local search architecture while also prototyping new products. Earlier in his career, Michael worked for MongoMusic Inc. where he helped build the site's core music search and categorization technology. He also architected the software design and led the development of the MongoMusic online radio system. This later became Microsoft MSN online radio when Microsoft purchased MongoMusic in the fall of 2000. After the acquisition, Michael continued to work for Microsoft, garnering multiple patents while helping the software giant develop the MSN Music Download service and various aspects of the MSN Entertainment website.

When Michael is not engineering software, he can be found sailing around Puget Sound, tending goal for his hockey team, or piloting small aircraft. He's a graduate of Princeton University with a BSE degree in Computer Science.

Chad McNees, Creative Director

For more than 12 years, Chad has been designing Web interfaces that have delighted millions of online consumers. Prior to conceiving the design for the pages of Yapta.com, Chad was a Lead User Experience Designer for Judy's Book, Inc., a popular local search service and social network for sharing reviews of local businesses with friends. In addition to designing all the early and subsequent versions of the site, he also played a critical role in product planning and development. His efforts included in-depth consumer research and user testing which he translated into unique design innovations. He began his career as a Web and Graphic Designer at Applied Health Science, Inc. where he supported the conversion of desktop-based medical applications to Web-based applications and produced interactive training applications.

Chad is a graduate of The Evergreen State College and The Art Institute of Seattle. He currently resides in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood with his wife, Katya.

Allyson Schreck, Director, Ad Sales

Allyson brings Yapta over a decade of combined advertising sales and marketing experience, having worked at some of the most prominent agencies and online companies in the Seattle area. Most recently, Allyson was a Regional Sales Manager for Allrecipes.com where she orchestrated the launch of new ad sales products with some of the largest online advertisers in the U.S. Prior to Allrecipes.com, she served as Account Manager for Hadley Green Creates (now GreenRubio), one of the most successful advertising and media planning agencies in the Pacific Northwest. While at HGC, she managed the execution of brand, sales and marketing initiatives for a number of consumer and technology-based clients, from Microsoft to Columbia Bank. Before her years at HGC, Allyson was the Product Development Manager at MyLacky.com where she was oversaw nine service categories and 45 products. Prior to MyLacky.com, she served as Program Manager for Corbis where she was instrumental in the launch of Creative Studio, a visual program allowing consumers to use royalty-free images to create greeting cards, calendars and stationary. Earlier in her career, she worked for AKQA, an interactive e-marketing company, managing $14 million in client accounts.

Allyson is originally from New Orleans and is a graduate of Tulane University. She currently lives in West Seattle with her husband and two boys, Alexander and Aidan.

Jeff Pecor, Sr. Communications Director

Jeff is responsible for putting Yapta.com "on the map", having brought national and international media exposure to the company - and built word-of-mouth among hundreds-of-thousands of travelers. Before joining Yapta in April 2007, Jeff spent 6 years at Barokas Public Relations (BPR), a consumer and enterprise PR firm in Seattle specializing in serving technology markets nationwide. As a Senior Account Manager at BPR, he helped many online companies become "household names", including Classmates.com, Allrecipes.com and Concur Technologies. (Working with Concur helped Jeff cut his teeth in the travel space.) Prior to his work at BPR, he served as an Account Coordinator at The Silver Company, a Seattle-based PR firm that also worked with many dot-com clients, including GreatFood.com (now 1-800-flowers.com) and iStartVentures.com. At the start of his career, Jeff spent 3 years as a Sales Representative for SI Technologies (now Vishay Intertechnology), a publicly traded manufacturer of on-board weighing systems.

He holds a bachelor's degree in Journalism from St. Michael's College in Vermont. He currently resides in Seattle with his wife and two children, Ella and Jackson.

board of directors

board of advisors