AMSTERDAM, April 18, 2018 : The fast growing peer-to-peer travel booking platform TRVL.com is acting like a modern day Robin Hood, stealing from the rich and giving to the poor.
TRVL.com is paying travelers a commission on every booking they make. These commissions are normally only available to travel agents. But since travelers are doing all the work themselves, why have them pay for a service they’re not getting?
TRVL is supporting payments in Indian rupees and offering local customer service. It has secured extra server capacity to handle the increase in traffic.
CEO of TRVL is Arthur Hoffman, who launched Expedia in India 10 years ago, said “I am very excited to launch TRVL in India 10 years after I set up business for Expedia. India is a nation of passionate travelers and very likely to embrace innovation and new technology.”
This is also reflected in recent market research, that shows that India’s online hotel market will grow to $4 Bn in 2020.
Hoffman knows first hand how competitive the Indian market is. Hoffman also said “The opportunity for TRVL, in a context where travelers are used to look for the best prices and show an entrepreneurial mind-set to new technology, is huge.”
Founder Jochem Wijnands is an experienced entrepreneur who sold his previous company Prss to Apple for an undisclosed amount in 2014. Prss is the mobile publishing platform that became Apple News that launched in 2015 as part of Apple’s iOS.
Wijnands said, “TRVL makes it rain money, that’s our mission. Travelers are paying too much. We are rewarding them for acting like a do-it-yourself travel agent by paying them the commission a travel agent would get.”
How does TRVL work …?
TRVL is comparing all hotels on the internet to find the best deal. Once you book a hotel, TRVL receives a commission and passes the lion-share of it on to you. On your dashboard you can keep track of outstanding payments. TRVL also features 50,000 hotels with industry discounts of up to 65%, normally only available to professional travel agents.
TRVL launched in June last year. It offers access to 2+ million hotels and home-stays, it has users in 117 countries and supports payments in 13 currencies.
