TRVL, a Amsterdam-based hotel booking and price comparison site that offers commissions to individual consumers for every booking they make, recently forayed into the Asian market with India being its first stop following its launch in June 2017.
While users from India were able to sign up previously, the website now supports payments in Indian rupees and is offering local customer service. It has also secured extra server capacity to handle the increase in traffic.
CEO of TRVL Arthur Hoffman, who launched Expedia in India 10 years ago, said: “We have also added the full inventory of Agoda, Priceline’s specialist in Asia earlier this year. In addition, we are running Indian marketing campaigns on platforms like Facebook and Instagram.”
TRVL already has presence in global markets like the US, Australia, New Zealand and pan-Europe, and there are plans to expand into more English-speaking Asian markets such as Singapore and Hong Kong, before introducing more languages in future.
Jochem Wijnands, TRVL’s founder, shared: “Our own research shows that more than 50 per cent of all bookings are done for others. These are people that book for their family, friends or colleagues and truly act like an amateur travel agent. They are often passionate about travelling, but don’t get any love from other companies in this space.”
The company rejects the notion that its unique end-consumer commission model cuts out traditional travel agents. “Many independent travel agents have signed up for TRVL and benefit from the deals we offer and commissions they get paid,” shared Wijnands.
“Our sales team has been signing India-based professional travel agents who appreciate the ease of use of our platform, competitive commission structures, and the fact that it is free to use, with no annual commitment,” added Hoffman.
According to Hoffman, the idea for TRVL stems from a belief that booking travel in today’s online B2C world can be improved. “We want to make booking travel more relational again, make it about the experience, the layer above the transaction through local knowledge that travellers have and want to share. We want to provide people with personalised advice that allows them to come to better, faster and more relevant choices. We want to empower the traveller, turn them into amateur travel agents, and like the professional world, also reward them with a commission.”
In the near future TRVL plans to launch a feature that allows users to contact and chat with each other, and help each other with local tips and recommendations.
“This type of personalised advice is missing today and would make the work of these do-it-yourself travel agent and amateur travel organisers a lot easier,” said Wijnands.
“For example, instead of indicating whether a hotel allows pets or not, we want to tell what the hotel exactly does for your dog, type of food, pillow, where to meet other dog owners, and take your dog for a walk. If the hotel allows dogs, there is a much more engaging and emotionally connecting story to tell to guests with dogs. That’s the level we want to hit, and the type of value-added information we want to equip our users with,” said Hoffman.
