Sometimes start-ups fail because they can’t raise enough capital, but it’s usually because they either don’t execute or because demand and competition materializes (or doesn’t) differently than expected. Sometimes it’s because of an investor-management disconnect that leads to failure despite good execution.

As outsiders, we don’t know why PTG will soon be closing their doors.

We don’t have any proprietary or insider information, but we do think they have (we are always a little slow and too optimistic, so we’re going use present tense :

• a compelling vision of providing professional content (but not bookings) to help consumers who want unbiased help,
• an accomplished management team,
• a beautiful and easy-to-use site,
• unique content,
• and most important of all – traction on consumer acquisition.

According to Compete.com, PTG has more than twice the traffic of the much more well-known Tripit, Travelmuse or Nileguide. And the new professional review service that launched with much ado – oyster.com is just getting started.

According to Compete.com, PTG has twice the traffic of better known sites

So, with better growth than other travel start-ups of the 2007 vintage (unfair to compare oyster.com to those sites) and easily monetized hotel traffic, why is PTG shutting down? An attorney for PTG and it’s management team, Edmund Novotny, told Tomio Geron at VentureWire, “The impending shutdown of the company is a result of the economy…Everyone wants the company to succeed…Simple market forces forced it down.”

Why is Edmund Novotny involved? Because, according to Tomio Geron at VentureWire, some of the minority investors are suing the company’s management and Boston Ventures for $20 million, alleging fraud, negligent misrepresentation, breach of fiduciary duty and a number of other charges.

We clearly are not in a position to comment on the legal situation. We are surprised that given PTG’s growth, attractive market niche, and Peter Nicas’s (PTG’s CEO) accomplished past that PTG couldn’t raise more capital, but given the large number of travel start-ups fund-raising, perhaps it’s a sign of tough times ahead.

We want to congratulate Peter, Sheila and the rest of the PTG team on building a great product, and we are disappointed that PTG will not continue to address the needs of the consumer segments that want professional content.

BTW, I hope take a moment to see the site that the PTG team built, but if not, to save you a trip to what may soon be the internet archives:

Professional Travel Guide's beautiful home page

And a detail page, all sites can envy:

PTG's Miami shopping detail page for bookstores

They created an intuitive hotel page:

Professional Travel Guide's hotel well designed hotel page

Geron also confirmed with Nicas that PTG  ”is seeking a buyer and may shut down at the end of August.”  (Looks like they missed that deadline.) We hope they find that elusive buyer and the site continues to keep their doors wide open.