Lucid Travel

What Lucid Travel does

Lucid Travel is a travel software company purpose-built for the sports industry, serving youth and amateur sports teams, tournament and event directors, university athletics and recreation departments, and individual travelers. Founded in 2017 and headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina, the company operates as a wholly-owned subsidiary of HotelPlanner and is led by CEO and Founder Ben Knosby alongside CTO and Co-Founder Nick Karagiannis. Its core product is a free, self-serve platform that supports both instant hotel booking for groups of 1-9 rooms and an automated room block service for groups of 10 or more, with custom branded travel pages configurable across 100+ settings. The platform aggregates rates from consumer travel sites such as Booking.com, Priceline, Expedia, and Hotels.com and layers direct connections to a wholesale network of 10,000+ hotels, enabling discounts of up to 60% off public rates.

The underlying technology combines a hotel aggregation engine with embedded integrations into major sports-technology platforms including GotSoccer, LeagueApps, DanceComp Genie, Exposure Events, NBC Sports Next, Tourney Machine, AES, and Sport 80, allowing teams to book travel without leaving their existing registration and event management workflows. Recent product surface extensions add car rental, flights, and bus booking alongside hotels. Lucid's go-to-market combines product-led self-serve sign-up, integration partner distribution, event-based demand generation (including the Sports ETA Symposium), and content marketing.

The business model is freemium and transaction-based: end users pay nothing to use the platform, and Lucid monetizes through hotel rebates (5%+ cash back on every reservation) and the spread on wholesale hotel rates. Organizations can additionally earn cash back through their custom travel links, and tournament directors can define per-room-night earning rates, creating an incentive-aligned two-sided marketplace between teams, organizers, and hotel supply.

Name

Lucid Travel

Legal name

Lucid Travel

Website

https://lucidtravel.us

Company type

Private

Founded year

2017

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Lucid Travel is a free, self-serve travel management platform built for sports teams, tournament directors, universities, and families, aggregating hotel rates and offering automated room blocks, wholesale discounts up to 60%, and cash-back rebates as a HotelPlanner subsidiary.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Sports Travel Management Software

NAICS

Travel Agencies (561510), Travel Agencies (56151)

SIC

Services-Amusement & Recreation Services (7900)

akta.pro primary industry

Sports & Active Travel Agencies (e.g., ski, golf, dive) (THAKAFAJ)

Keywords

• Sports team travel
• Hotel booking platform
• Tournament lodging
• Team room blocks
• Sports travel software

Headquarters

HQ city

Raleigh

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations

Revenue model

1. Transaction Fees / Rebates from Hotels: Lucid earns 5%+ cash back on every reservation made through the platform. The company negotiates discounted hotel rates and receives rebates from hotel partnerships. Tournament directors can also earn per room night when teams book through their custom links.
2. Wholesale Rate Markup: Access to non-public wholesale hotel discounts allows Lucid to offer competitive rates while maintaining margin on bookings. Exclusive discounts up to 60% off are passed through with revenue generated from the spread.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Lucid Travel is a sports-specialized travel booking platform that aggregates hotel rates from top OTAs (Booking.com, Priceline, Expedia, Hotels.com) and connects directly with wholesale networks and 10,000+ hotels to offer discounted rates up to 60% off. It enables sports teams, tournament directors, universities, and individuals/families to book instant hotel reservations (1-9 rooms) or set up automated room blocks (10+ rooms) through branded custom travel pages and integrations with leading sports technology platforms.

Product overview

Lucid Travel is a unified travel management platform designed specifically for the sports industry. The core offering consists of four customer-facing products: Sports Teams (Youth Sports), Tournament Directors, Universities, and Individuals & Families, all built around hotel booking and travel management. The platform operates on two booking modes: Instant Booking (1-9 rooms) that aggregates rates from major travel sites and offers wholesale discounts up to 60% off, and Easy Room Blocks (10+ rooms) that automates group hotel negotiations. The Team Room Blocks module and Custom Travel Pages feature extend the core platform with room block management and white-label branding capabilities. The platform integrates with leading sports technology companies including GotSoccer, LeagueApps, DanceComp Genie, Exposure Events, NBC Sports Next, Tourney Machine, AES, and Sport 80 to embed travel functionality into existing registration workflows.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Sports Teams (Youth Sports) Travel management platform offering for youth and amateur sports teams, enabling automated room block setup, instant hotel booking (1-9 rooms), team travel coordination, branded custom travel pages, and access to wholesale hotel discounts up to 60% off with 5%+ cash back.
• Tournament Directors Platform offering for tournament and event directors that automates hotel bookings for events, enables per-room-night rebate earnings, integrates with registration systems (CSV uploads, sports-tech integrations), and provides automated event reporting and monthly payments.
• Universities Travel solution for university clubs, recreation programs, and athletic teams that provides exclusive hotel discounts, approval workflows, customizations, centralized tracking, and student safety and compliance features.
• Individuals & Families Individual and family hotel booking offering for personal trip reservations, tournament travel, and weekend trips, providing access to aggregated rates from major travel sites and exclusive wholesale hotel discounts shared with teams and organizations.

Quantifiable outcome

• Up to 60% off hotel rates through wholesale networks
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers9 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration8 records

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Nine partnerships are on record, tiered core and flagship.

• GotSoccercoreTechnology or IntegrationIntegration partnership allowing GotSoccer users to access Lucid Travel booking services directly within the platform.
• LeagueAppscoreTechnology or IntegrationIntegration partnership enabling LeagueApps users to book travel through their existing registration and event management platform.
• DanceComp GeniecoreTechnology or IntegrationIntegration partnership for dance competition travel booking through DanceComp Genie platform.
• Exposure EventscoreTechnology or IntegrationIntegration partnership enabling Exposure Events users to access Lucid Travel booking services.
• NBC Sports NextcoreTechnology or IntegrationIntegration partnership with NBC Sports Next for sports travel booking services.
• Tourney MachinecoreTechnology or IntegrationIntegration partnership allowing Tourney Machine users to book travel through Lucid Travel.
• AEScoreTechnology or IntegrationIntegration partnership for AES platform users to access sports team travel booking.
• Sport 80coreTechnology or IntegrationIntegration partnership enabling Sport 80 users to book travel through Lucid Travel.
• HotelPlannerflagshipOthersHotelPlanner is the parent company of Lucid Travel. Lucid Travel operates as a HotelPlanner company, leveraging HotelPlanner's hotel booking infrastructure and relationships.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Groupize: Groupize is a group hotel booking platform serving meetings, events, and team travel — overlapping Lucid's room block and group rate negotiation offering for smaller groups and event organizers.
• HotelPlanner: HotelPlanner is the parent company of Lucid Travel and itself offers group hotel booking and event lodging solutions to sports teams, tournaments, and organizations — overlapping core product, customers, and supplier infrastructure.
• SquadTrip: SquadTrip provides group travel booking and payment management for sports teams, dance studios, and event organizers — directly competing with Lucid in the team/group travel vertical with similar room block and payment automation.

Others

• LeagueApps: LeagueApps is a sports league and registration management platform and existing Lucid integration partner; while not a direct travel competitor, it controls distribution for thousands of youth sports organizations.
• TeamSnap: TeamSnap is a leading youth and amateur sports team management platform — an adjacent ecosystem player whose users (coaches, administrators) overlap Lucid's sports team buyer but does not currently offer hotel booking.

Broad incumbents

• Trip.com Group: Trip.com Group operates major OTAs (including Trip.com and Skyscanner) and corporate travel platforms; it competes broadly in travel booking and represents a potential global expansion benchmark for Lucid's platform.
• Cvent: Cvent is a large-scale event and group travel management platform offering hotel block management, attendee booking, and sourcing tools — a broader incumbent serving many of the same tournament and university buyers.
• Booking.com: Booking.com is a global OTA whose rates Lucid aggregates. It represents the broadest competitive threat, particularly for the instant-booking (1-9 room) flow, though it lacks sports-vertical specialization.
• Expedia Group: Expedia Group is a major OTA whose Hotels.com and Expedia rates Lucid aggregates; it competes on consumer-facing booking and increasingly on group/affiliate travel, overlapping Lucid's core booking flows.

Emerging players

• Eventpipe: Eventpipe provides event organizers with hotel block management and booking tools — competing with Lucid's Tournament Directors product in the sports event lodging space, though at smaller scale.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/Lucid_Travel

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Lucid Travel