We launched the 1st phase of TripTheEarth recently. The Hotel (Listing) + Tripper segments (Travel Social Network) are live. The rest of the segments to be launched in the coming months.
TripTheEarth is not a travel agency. The Portal is to bridge the gap between the tripper and the Hotels, Resorts, Taxi and Package Owners. We want that trippers to communicate directly with the Hotels, Resorts, Taxi & Package Owners and get all the facts right before starting the trip. This would help the tripper to have the most correct, latest information and the best price for the service.
We simplify the Hotel, Resort, Taxi and Package search by getting the Contact information, Tariff, Details & pictures of all the services on a single platform. Client does not have to spend hours on search engines to plan a holiday.
Trippers can:
- Create trips, with photo albums, trip experiences
- create own circle of trippers with whom you share your trip experiences
- Coordinate future trips with the group of friends or existing Trippers
- Follow trippers whose reviews and experiences can help you plan your trips better
We are looking for valued reviews from fellow Rodinhooders on the look, feel and the functionalities of the site, so that we can make necessary changes before launching globally.
Regards
Saurabh
Rajiv Indimath
Saurabh,
I struggle to figure out what is TripTheEarth actually aiming to do??
– you mention you are not a portal selling inventory …. so why would any hotel stay listed with you??
– hotels need a sales impact for a OTA to be working with them…
– feedback that you aim to collect & review, is already being done very effectively by TripAdvisor and HolidayIQ
– And if you are aiming to only act as a “bridge” between the hotel and the potential guest, hotels in India are waking up too positioning themselves through their own website ( with active SEM & SEO ), along with an integrated & customisable booking engine.. so where & how is TTE adding value?
– I browsed through TTE portal…. and found it appalling… pls bear in mind, anything in travel & tourism is extremely visual…and the kind of “visual merchandising” you have put up for few of the properties is superbly below par!!! plus there is no consistency in the layout
– your filters for search needs a serious overhaul
– several other features that could be strapped on, but again I need clarity of what you aiming to do with TTE..
– if you are merely a package & review aggregator, you have serious competition from Hotwire & Priceline..
– if you are aiming to be a B2B online tour aggregator, you have serious competition from HRS
– if you are aiming to be a niche portal, you have Splendia, Tablet Hotels, Mr & Mrs Smith to take the game head on
– if you would mold into a portal.. you have the likes of agoda, Expedia….
– do let me know what is your targetted value add for this sector through TTE
– take caution of “no shows”
On a closing note, I am currently scaling up an angel funded SaaS venture in the hospitality space with 180+ clients across hotels / resorts / serviced apartments…
I will be happy to help you out with “on the ground” & “inside” mechanics of this sector and help you shape your venture.
Good Luck
Rajiv
rajiv@fuzzyloci.com
Saurabh Tiwari
Hi Rajiv,
Thanks for spending time on the TripTheEarth site and providing us with your valuable feedback. I take note of your feedback and will try to inculcate it in the future UI changes.
TripTheEarth is neither a Travel Agency, B2B Aggregator, OTA, Review aggregator nor Niche Travel Portal.
TripTheEarth is an online travel portal which is to remove intermediaries between Hotels & Clients. The site showcases the Hotel + Rooms + Tariff + Contact details (which is directly managed by the Hotels). All the details and pictures are managed by the respective hotels and that’s why one would see difference in the Quality of Photos + Style of information on the site. The hotel can run different promos to increase their sales.
All the payments are done by clients directly to the hotels (saving commissions and better price to clients). And all the reservations are governed by the Hotel policies.
We plan to engage TripAdvisor reviews on TripTheEarth site in the near future.
The Hotels gains from increased exposure to travelers who visit TripTheEarth (which leads to increased direct sales for free)
The website has Active Social Travel Network members (Trippers). (Which again leads to increased sales for free)
The website will have both Hotel & Transport aggregation, which will help both the industries. (Which will again lead to increased sales at no extra cost)
TripTheEarth will be a global aggregator, which will have Domestic + Inbound visitors ( which will drive sales in their respective country hotels at no extra cost)
Besides Tripadvisor & HolidayIQ charges huge amounts from hotels on sales driven services, Which TripTheEarth provides for Free. (Which will again lead to increased sales on no extra cost)
Rajiv please share some more details on your project at saurabh.tiwari@roofnride.com. Let me see if we can mutually benefit each other with our services.
Saurabh
Nishant Agrawal
The UI is so-so. Looks a bit cheap, to be frank.
I would love to go into details but Rajiv has already done that well enough 🙂
And yes, Rajiv has a valid question. What ‘exactly’ are you trying to do? A bit of everything?
Saurabh Tiwari
Hey Nishant,
Thanks for the frank feedback. We will surely look into the UI in the next changes.
We are trying to empower hoteliers so that they can drive more sales on no extra cost. Besides the existing industry is skewed more towards clients (TripAdvisor or HolidayIQ). For any additional sales activity the hotels have to pay huge amounts to portals. We are trying to make life (Sales) easier for the Hoteliers.
Nishant please feel free to suggest me the -ives on the UI on my mail. It would be good to have as many suggestion before we go in for the UI chnages.
Cheers
Saurabh
Manish Golchha
Hi Saurabh,
I feel you r focusing on Tripper Social Network. Also when I visited your site – it simply looks like Hotel booking plus review site. Your USP what you are saying (direct contact between hotels & clinets) – as a layman I am unable to find out during initial visit. As a startup in beta, website is very good & simple to use. Also name is quite confusing..Trip the Earth. Either there must be tagline which atleast give idea to us about ur website concept. This is purely my opinion. I feel you need to tell ur users what ur trying to do at Homepage, what make them to visit ur site instead of Big Pictures.
Darshan Bhambiru
Check this post here it should help you both I feel, read the comments other Links and references are mentioned too so you can take your pick 🙂
”Dont google out,when you have therodinhoods.wpengine.com”
Some one was also looking for inputs on this here :
Do you think is there market for DAY USE HOTELS in India ?
Some older ones worth referencing again :
Clueless about what to do? Tushky.com is here! (Experiences of Tushky at the Open House)
Maybe you can pitch in and then take it further as you feel is comfortable to both. Cheers!!
Saurabh Tiwari
Sure Manish,
I like the idea. We will try to work out an opening page which gives details on the concept of the site.
Thanks
Rajiv Indimath
Saurabh,
Here are a few insights based on my dealing with large global brands and renowned domestic hotel chains..
– if you are a direct connect between the hotel and the guest, then the hotels are waking up to the idea to leveraging their own website, just like in the developed markets. the hotel’s own website is far more a powerful tool for the hoteliers to sell their inventory, design, customise, promote & sell their packages ( with tons of upsells & cross sells… I can cull out specific cases of these avenues with a few of my clients ), build online brand, and save distribution costs
– any inventory sold or attempted to be sold – as in your case wherein the prices would be atleast be put up for a price comparison, on any portal other than the hotel’s own website, calls for a Rate Parity with other existing portals. What this means is that contractually & operationally, hotels are bound to publish the same rates to all portals, including aggregators, ex of taxes & commissions, and independent of portal centric promotions…So again, how is TTE adding value even in terms of lower price ??
– If you are a referral only portal, how does it work ?? Firstly, the hotel can leverage its own website through SEM and SEO to get traffic and generate sales with an integrated booking engine…. if TTE is a secondary to this function of the hotel’s then, what is your metric to compute revenues for TTE? Would you charge per referral flat fee or a % of booking value ?? And again why would the hotelier go down this route, when he can do all of it EXCLUSIVELY on his own website???
– the hotel’s independent website is the best platform for it to project its persona, beyond the price… The funda in hotel sales is simple : any portal other than the hotel’s is merely a “price seller” while the hotel’s website is a “an experience seller”
– this industry borrows its distribution & revenue management from the airlines… GDS, OTAs hotel websites comprise the digital sales & distribution channels…. while with an exception of a handful, hotels also maintain a corporate sales force… further, similar to the airlines, the hotels offer better rates, packages, discounts, guest experience when a guest books DIRECTLY on the hotel’s website..
– I am more than happy to help you and collaborate in the right way once the TTE value add is clarified…I shall be more than happy to refer you to my 180+ clients in India and another 180+ in the UK
– One idea which is still in the nascent stage in this sector, atleast in India is : AV driven story telling portal… and this works wonderfully well for destination properties, resorts & boutique spas ( for Eg : Umaid Bhavan, Anandas, Windsor Castle, Grace Resort, ITC Ramganga, Rambaugh Palace and the likes…). So you could rather focus on developing TTE as a AV driven story teller where you capture guest/resident experiences on a AV, embed them as a “guest experience” tab in the website of the hotels… This would make a better wave in terms of feedback loop
Saurabh Tiwari
Rajiv,
I agree with the capabilities of a Hotel Website. But A hotel always has limitation & difficulties on
– making frequent changes on the Hotel website
– cost & success rate in SEO & SMO efforts
A report from India Tourism Statistics 2011 shows that:
5 Star + 5 Star Deluxe is 12 % of total approved hotels
4 Star is 06 % of total approved hotels
Most of the findings mentioned by you holds true for these 18% of the hotels. TripTheEarth is to empower the rest 82% of the hotels.
All the information (Photos + Inventory + Tariff) published on TripTheEarth are managed and owned by the Hotels. And the ownership of price parity lies with the Hotel owners. TripTheearth does not boast of lowest prices. We provide a platform to increase the Hotels visibility to travelers (minus the intermediaries). All the communication happens between the Traveler & the Hotel. So in a way the TripTheEarth Hotel Page acts as the Hotels own dynamic website.
TripTheEarth would not charge any referral flat fee or % of the booking Value on the regular listing.
Besides Tripadvisor & HolidayIQ are not price sellers. So all non hotel sites have not to be price sellers. Hotels always are on a lookout of means by which they can increase exposure and sales (Print Ads, TV + Radio Ads, CPC, SEO, SMO, Display Ads, Travel Trade Fairs). But all these demands huge expenditure. TripTheEarth is to empower the 82% of the hotels with increased exposure and sales at no extra cost.
Saurabh
Rajiv Indimath
Saurabh,
Great statistics!! However, below is my experience of scaling up a SaaS venture which funnily is also in increasing sales and implement revenue management – of course revenue management is beyond what TTE aims to do..
– the mission is get as many of 80,000+ hotels across India on the grid, as digital is the cheapest way to distribute inventory and build a brand…
– out of my current clients,a large chunk have achieved significant sales through the hotel’s own website
– the hotel website is extremely dynamic to accommodate as many deals & packages as frequently desired by the hotelier
– the sales impact of driving business through website is as follows : ~ 30%+ incremental numbers that have effected from the hotel’s own website versus a dormant 5% prior while engaging with “non hotel” portals – like travel aggregators & OTAs
– the business impact has been 3x on the hotel website versus all 3rd party portals put together…
– the steep increase in sales through the hotel website is purely driven through SEO and SEM and content centric indexing…
– And its pure common sense that a hotel cannot build a strong digital brand while it stays pivotal to a common marketplace model like a 3rd party portal…
– The question is simple – how will you ensure you have enough visibility for each of your hotel-partners, when you grow?? There has to be mechanism…
– and btw, TripAdvisor, lately has started to feature hotel websites along with its ratings, to enable the guest to directly book on the hotel’s website…
Anyways… good luck in your pursuit..
happy to help..
rajiv@fuzzyloci.com
Saurabh Tiwari
Thanks Rajiv
Darshan Bhambiru
Adding this here for your reference again!!
You and India- Introducing greeters in Indian Travel Industry