New York based Jetsetter (www.jetsetter.com) is a new flash-sale website that sells hand-picked upscale travel experiences at flash-sale prices which you won’t otherwise get directly from the travel company responsible for the experience.

Jetsetter is the travel wing of Gilt Groupe – which offers flash-sales on designer goods. Each sale on Jetsetter - featuring properties around a theme, brand, or destination – lasts only 2 days. And just like Gilt Groupe, Jetsetter too is a members-only site, which you can join only by invitation.

They’re promising at least 30% below best available rates, but Jetsetter seems to want to focus more on the ”Discovery and Experience” part, rather than the price discounts.

So the destinations aren’t the usual sun n’sand beaches and urban fleshpots that get advertised. Jetsetter experiences available in the beta launch include The Cotton House (Mustique), Negresco (Nice), Encantado (New Mexico), Banyan Tree (Mayakoba), The Bauer (Venice), Paws Up (Montana) and the Hotel On Rivington (New York).

o top it off,  they are taking pains to make sure the experience lives up to the hype, by sending Jetsetter correspondents to scout the destinations in advance and provide a ’seal of approval’ for listing on Jetsetter. Chronicled on the site you’ll find first-person accounts, insider tips, travelogues and photography for each sale - so you know exactly what you’re getting into.

Just in case you have regrets or second thoughts about a spur of the moment purchase, customers do have a ‘Hold’ – a 72 hour window to think it over, and your deposit (10%) can be transferred to your next purchase. 

All Gilt members are also members of Jetsetter by default. Which means Jetsetter already has a base of over 1.5m Gilt members as prospective customers. And it does seem like the right time for a service like Jetsetter to distinguish itself with a certain amount of exclusivity.

The only problem might be expanding their collection of experiences. It would be time consuming and costly to expand the list while maintaining their current model of visiting a destination and checking it out first-hand. In order to grow,  Jetsetter is going to have to find the right balance between offering more experiences, and maintaining the quality of each experience.

They do have the pedigree to do it – Jetsetter CEO Drew Patterson was most recently the VP Marketing for Kayak. The other co-founder – Creative Director Amy Ziff, was Editor-at-Large for TraveloCity.