Focus on integrating well with existing chat apps for the chat functionality. Make it easy to pull info from your app into a group chat in whatever chat app. Don't make everyone have to join yet another chat system just to plan a group trip.

I left the travel industry in 2011, but if any of my knowledge still applies, and you want to make some money... you need to do things to drive hotel bookings.

You probably need a catalog of hotels and places to visit anyway to help users plan things. But make sure you have a way for your users to book those hotels and you to get a commission. Make sure you're making landing pages for people to find with search engines. You'll probably want/need to pay to get people into those same landing pages, so you'll need to be tracking revenue at a very granular level, so you can bid higher on the pages that make you more money, and less (or not at all) on the pages that don't. And if you're in multiple commission programs (which you should be), you can be sure to highlight the ones that make you more money.

You may want to have something t help your users make airplane and car bookings too, but those margins are slim, so work on hotels first.

[1] https://lifehacker.com/yahoo-trip-planner-100875

As a user, I have no strong reason why I should register.

> validating the idea with potential customers, and building in an overly saturated space that will be a constant uphill battle to acquire and maintain users.

The first time around, I missed even checking the bottom half of your landing page, which seem to have more information about what the app is targeting to be about. Reading it gave the me the vibe of being part of a community or a group, but reading this text above made me think if I'm merely a wallet for you. My 2c to you is to focus on building a community than a business. Once there is a community, commerce follows.

Don’t get me wrong, it is great that you scratched your own dog food.

But it doesn’t seem like a significant problem for experienced travelers, business travelers, family travelers or tour operators…most travel planning doesn’t involve thinking “I wish I had a chat app.”

We're looking for advice on next steps - potential pivots, growth hacks, anything really.

The important thing you built is a team who can complete a project together. There are no generic growth jacks, everything requires very specific hard work.

The best thing the team can do is build something else together. The team is what matters. Good luck.