Taking Off: Pack Up + Go

You have to ask: What gives a 23-year-old woman with absolutely no experience in the travel business the idea that she can start a travel agency? Lillian Rafson had a unique idea and the passion to pull it off.

Her company is Pack Up + Go, a breakthrough agency that provides customers with surprise trips across the United States. A survey asks clients for details ranging from their climate preferences to their cultural interests. Do they want to lie on a beach, visit museums, ski, hike, or is the perfect vacation spent grazing through restaurants or on a pub crawl? Clients are also asked where they’ve traveled, so that Pack Up + Go isn’t sending them to the same old escape. Trips come in different price categories, so of course that factors into the considerations.

Once Rafson and her team have the information in hand, they plan the trip. The twist is, the customers have no idea where they’re going until they’re actually on their way. A week before departure, an email provides essential details, such as the weather report at the destination, packing suggestions, and where and at what time the journey begins. Then a few days before the trip is to start, an envelope arrives. The temptation to cheat would only spoil the element that attracted the clients in the first place; the spontaneity and delight of the unexpected.

Until recently, Pack Up + Go has concentrated on three-day trips to destinations around the United States, but they’re planning to launch longer trips and launched new travel options like staycations, surprise road trips and outdoor-style vacations (think glamping and cabins).

After an inauspicious opening, the company has rocketed to over 12,000 trips, many for repeat clients.

“I launched the business on Jan. 1, 2016,” Rafson says, “and really all that meant was making my Squarespace go live, and I emailed all my friends and family. And then nothing happened. There was radio silence and I was sitting by myself at my desk at a coworking space thinking about what to do next.”

As a millennial, Rafson was extremely comfortable in the startup culture and loved its can-do spirit. But when she found herself working for a startup selling goods that didn’t exactly excite her, she quit her job and resumed the traveling that had so inspired her during a year abroad in Paris while she was at NYU.

She found herself in Riga, Latvia, where she met two women who’d been sent to Riga by a Dutch surprise travel agency. Rafson had never heard of the concept, but she knew she loved it. “It was a lightbulb moment for me, as cheesy as that sounds,” she laughs.

It also occurred to her that she’d made it all the way to Latvia, but had never been to Denver. As a student abroad, she’d thought nothing of taking spontaneous weekend trips across Europe. “It’s just not part of our routine in the States,” she says. “And how could I encourage that? So I think that sort of embodies everything I love about Pack Up + Go.”

Rafson returned to her hometown, Pittsburgh, not really intending to stay, but she found herself in love with the city. “Nobody thinks of Pittsburgh as a leisure destination, but it has awesome museums and restaurants and a cultural scene,” she says, citing it as another example of everything she’d envisioned for her company.

A lot of luck entered into the success of Pack Up + Go.

First, Rafson found mentors in travel-related businesses who were generous with their knowledge and connections. She found people in the startup world who were just as excited to help. That, and she Googled and Googled.

Second, Rafson had something unique to offer and nothing to lose. She took on an evening bartending job. “I felt that even if it didn’t work, I could still support myself, and the worst-case scenario was really that I had a cool experience and I learned some stuff about starting a business and I could apply those lessons elsewhere.”

Third, Rafson entered a local business pitching competition and won. When she posted her win on social media, a friend of a friend saw it and contacted her. This was a writer for Business Insider, and once the article appeared, the reservations started pouring in. In the first six months, Rafson planned 250 trips.

She didn’t pay herself or take on her first employee until six months in, and that was someone to take over marketing and business development. She’d discovered her passion lay in working with clients.

Rafson continued bartending in the evening throughout the company’s first two years. She may have been comfortable in the startup culture, but not with their tendency to grow too fast.

“Especially in the travel industry,” she says, “there are so many factors outside of your control and customer service is really hands-on and very specific to each individual traveler. So I’ve always been wary of growing too quickly and compromising our travel experience.”

There are now 10 employees, counting Rafson, each hired only when absolutely necessary. Rafson still has not accepted any outside investments.

The first year she took on no industry partners. “I wanted to be sure that when we were ready to reach out to them, we brought something to the table,” she explains. “So the first year we were collecting feedback from our travelers about the hotels and activities we booked for them. And we also saw who was easiest to work with. So we could go to a hotel and say, ‘Hey guys, last year we booked 60 room nights with you. We booked 200 nights in all in your city, but we enjoyed working with you the most. How can we partner?’ That way we had something to offer and we weren’t just asking for discounts and giveaways.”

To offset the carbon of the business and the airline flights, Rafson joined the Carbon Fund, and the Pack Up + Go team has engaged in local Pittsburgh volunteer projects, like cleaning up parks and working on other beautification projects.

What advice would she give to someone starting a business? Having a unique niche is good. “And I would say, take the leap! It’s a wild ride. It’s a lot of fun, and if you love working with people, it’s a great opportunity for you. It doesn’t come without its hardships, but it really is an incredible way to meet people all over the world.”

And the future of Pack Up + Go? Rafson says she might consider expanding into international travel. But not now. “I’m really encouraging the idea of traveling domestically and spreading the economic benefits of tourism here.”

Originally appeared in the spring 2021 issue of The Compass Magazine.