Grandeur: a peer-to-peer travel concierge, run by Baby Boomers for Baby Boomers
A service design project addressing the lack of tailored travel services for Baby Boomers — proposing a personalized concierge model where local Baby Boomers host visiting Baby Boomers, matched peer-to-peer.
01 — Executive summary
Bridging the gap in tailored travel
Baby Boomers are underserved by a travel industry built around younger, more independent travelers. Grandeur's proposed solution is a personalized travel concierge service — run by Baby Boomers, for Baby Boomers — pairing visiting travelers with local hosts who know the destination and understand what this generation actually needs from a trip.
02 — Market understanding
A large, underserved, and well-resourced audience
The numbers make the opportunity concrete: this is a large population with real spending power and real time to travel — the market gap isn't a lack of demand, it's a lack of services built for how this generation actually wants to travel.
People in the U.S. were age 65+ in 2020, up from less than 1 in 20 in 1920.
Spent annually by the elderly on travel — a disproportionate share of leisure spending.
Leisure hours held by people 65+, looking for fun, stimulating, even transformative things to do.
03 — Target audience & needs
Safety, convenience, and personalization
Research into what this audience actually needs from a travel service converged on three priorities — all of which standard travel platforms, built for a younger and more tech-fluent traveler, tend to underserve.
04 — Solution overview
A peer-to-peer concierge model
Rather than a one-size-fits-all tour package, Grandeur connects a visiting Baby Boomer tourist with a local Baby Boomer acting as tour concierge — someone who hosts travelers passing through their town, while the tourist travels at ease knowing everything will be taken care of.
05 — Unique selling proposition
What sets Grandeur apart
Peer-to-Peer Concierge Service
Local Baby Boomer hosts, matched directly with visiting travelers of the same generation.
Tailored Transformative Experiences
Itineraries built around exploration and personal growth, not just sightseeing.
Holistic Well-being Focus
Safety, wellness, and accessibility considered as core service features, not afterthoughts.
06 — Design framework
Grounding the service in Maslow's hierarchy
To make sure the service addressed more than logistics, the design was mapped against Maslow's hierarchy of needs — starting from safety and moving up toward esteem and self-actualization, so the experience could support genuine personal growth, not just a checked-off itinerary.
07 — Service blueprint
Mapping the journey end to end
The blueprint traces the full journey — booking, the travel experience itself, and post-travel — layering in touchpoints like peer-to-peer matching, tailored itineraries, secure transportation, community events, and 24/7 concierge support, each tied back to a specific need on the Maslow framework.
08 — Business case
Sizing the opportunity and the price
The business case behind Grandeur: a large target market, a conservative capture rate, and a per-customer price point built up from real service cost components rather than picked out of the air.
Market penetration
The Baby Boomer travel market is estimated at $157 billion annually in the U.S. Capturing just 1% translates to roughly 343,000 travelers.
Price justification
Standard travel services range $100–$1,000+. Grandeur's $500 fee for a 3-day trip breaks down into itinerary planning, local concierge service, wellness and safety features, support, and marketing — projecting $171.5M in potential annual revenue.
