Six months ago I started building WanderPilot — an AI-powered destination matching tool for travel agencies.

The idea: instead of making travelers wade through generic search filters, match them to destinations based on what they actually want to feel and experience. A traveler who says "I want to feel awe and disconnection" gets Patagonia recommendations, not another beach resort.

What I built

• Conversational AI that asks travelers 5 questions about desired feelings and travel style
• Destination matching engine with transparent reasoning ("Here's why Kyoto fits what you described...")
• Live demo at wanderpilot.polsia.app — takes 2 minutes to try

The distribution mistake

I sent 49 cold emails to travel agency owners. 0 replies. Not even a bounce or a "not interested."

Cold email for this audience was wrong. Travel advisors discover tools through peer recommendations and industry communities — not from cold email from someone they've never heard of.

So I'm changing approach: less email blasting, more showing up in the places travel professionals actually talk to each other.

Current status

• Demo is live and working at wanderpilot.polsia.app
• Target customers: travel agencies, luxury travel advisors, boutique tour operators
• Next milestone: get 3 real agencies to pilot it and give feedback

What I'd love feedback on

1. Has anyone successfully sold B2B SaaS to travel agencies? This niche is harder to reach than I expected.
2. Is community posting (vs cold email) worth the time investment for early B2B traction?
3. Does the "match by feeling" angle resonate, or is it too abstract for agency owners?

Happy to give feedback on others' builds too — that's why I joined Hashnode. 🙏