TL;DR:
- TrovaTrip is a marketplace that provides pre-packaged trips. Hosts promote trips to their audience, and TrovaTrip handles logistics. Revenue is split roughly 60/20/20 — hosts keep about 20%.
- SquadTrip is a platform where you build, price, and manage your own trips. You keep 100% of the revenue minus standard processing fees (~2.9%).
- TrovaTrip is easier to start but caps your earnings and control. SquadTrip requires more setup but gives you full ownership of your brand, pricing, and traveler relationships.
- If you have an audience and want to monetize it through travel, the question is whether you want to rent someone else's trip or build your own.
Two Very Different Models
TrovaTrip and SquadTrip solve the same problem — helping community leaders, influencers, and organizers run group trips — but with fundamentally different approaches.
TrovaTrip: Marketplace model. You choose from pre-built trips, promote them to your audience, and TrovaTrip handles everything else. You earn a percentage.
SquadTrip: Platform model. You design your own trip, set your own pricing, manage your own travelers, and keep the revenue. The platform handles payment collection, booking pages, and guest management.
The right choice depends on what you value more: ease or ownership.
Want to build your own trips and keep the revenue? SquadTrip gives you booking pages, payment plans, and guest tracking — free to start.
Revenue: The Biggest Difference
This is where the models diverge most dramatically.
TrovaTrip Revenue Split
TrovaTrip uses a roughly 60/20/20 split:
- ~60% goes to the local operator (hotels, activities, ground logistics)
- ~20% goes to TrovaTrip (platform, marketing support, operations)
- ~20% goes to the host (you)
On a $2,500/person trip with 20 travelers ($50,000 gross):
- Local operator: ~$30,000
- TrovaTrip: ~$10,000
- You: ~$10,000
SquadTrip Revenue
On SquadTrip, you price the trip yourself and keep everything after processing fees:
- Gross revenue: $50,000
- Processing fees (~2.9% + $0.30): ~$1,450
- You: ~$48,550
That is a $38,550 difference on the same trip with the same number of travelers.
The tradeoff: on TrovaTrip, you did not have to negotiate with hotels, plan the itinerary, or manage logistics. On SquadTrip, you handle those relationships yourself (or hire a local operator and negotiate your own rate).
Control and Customization
TrovaTrip
- Choose from pre-built itineraries
- TrovaTrip sets the pricing
- Limited ability to customize the experience
- TrovaTrip's brand is prominent alongside yours
- Traveler relationship is shared with TrovaTrip
SquadTrip
- Design any trip you want — any destination, any format, any price
- Your brand only — your booking page, your domain, your logo
- Full control over itinerary, add-ons, packages, and pricing tiers
- Direct relationship with every traveler
- Collect registration info, dietary preferences, roommate requests
- Offer payment plans and BNPL options
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | SquadTrip | TrovaTrip |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue to host | ~97% (after processing) | ~20% |
| Trip design | Full control — build anything | Choose from pre-built itineraries |
| Pricing control | You set prices | TrovaTrip sets prices |
| Branding | Your brand only | Shared with TrovaTrip |
| Booking pages | ✓ Custom per trip | ✓ TrovaTrip-branded |
| Payment plans | ✓ Custom installment schedules | ⚠ Limited options |
| BNPL (Klarna/Affirm) | ✓ Built-in | ✗ Not available |
| Guest dashboard | ✓ Per-traveler portal | ✗ Managed by TrovaTrip |
| Group chat | ✓ Built-in | ✗ Not available |
| Registration forms | ✓ Custom forms at checkout | ⚠ Basic info collected |
| Logistics handled for you | ✗ You manage or hire operators | ✓ TrovaTrip manages |
| Minimum audience required | None | Yes (social following required) |
| Free to start | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes (marketplace model) |
When TrovaTrip Makes Sense
TrovaTrip is a good fit if you:
- Have a social media following but zero experience planning trips
- Want a completely hands-off experience — no vendor negotiations, no logistics
- Are okay earning 20% in exchange for doing minimal operational work
- Want to test whether your audience will book trips before investing in building your own
- Do not need custom itineraries or unique experiences
When SquadTrip Makes Sense
SquadTrip is the right choice if you:
- Want to keep 97%+ of the trip revenue, not 20%
- Have relationships with venues, hotels, or local operators (or want to build them)
- Want full control over your trip design, pricing, and brand
- Are building a travel business, not just promoting someone else's trips
- Need payment plans, BNPL, and flexible checkout for your travelers
- Want a direct relationship with your travelers (not mediated by a marketplace)
The Common Progression
Many organizers start on TrovaTrip and graduate to SquadTrip. The pattern:
- First trip on TrovaTrip — test the concept, see if your audience books. Low risk, low reward.
- Second trip on TrovaTrip — you realize you could have earned 5x more if you owned the trip.
- Third trip on SquadTrip — you negotiate directly with a hotel, price the trip yourself, and keep the revenue. You use SquadTrip to handle the booking page, payments, and guest management.
This is not a criticism of TrovaTrip. It serves a real purpose for first-time hosts. But once you have proven that your audience will travel with you, the economics of staying on a marketplace do not make sense.
For Influencers and Community Leaders
If you are a content creator, coach, wellness practitioner, or community leader, this is the key question:
Are you promoting someone else's trip, or are you running your own?
TrovaTrip makes you a promoter. You share a link, people book, and you earn a commission. It is affiliate marketing with a travel wrapper.
SquadTrip makes you the organizer. You create the experience, own the relationship, and build a repeat travel business that compounds over time. Your travelers become your community, not TrovaTrip's.
Final Thoughts
TrovaTrip and SquadTrip are not really competitors — they serve different stages of the organizer journey. TrovaTrip is training wheels. SquadTrip is the bicycle.
If you are testing whether group travel works for your brand, TrovaTrip lets you try with minimal risk. If you know it works and you want to maximize revenue, own your brand, and build a real business around it, SquadTrip gives you everything you need.
Ready to own your group trips and keep the revenue? Start your first trip on SquadTrip — free, with booking pages, payment plans, and guest management included.