Hey guys, I’m Ameya. I’ve backpacked across SE Asia and previously spent 5 largely experimental years at IIT Bombay.
We started Ithaka because as travelers, we realised that the root source of every travel related problem was verified, actionable information. Flights, hotels, restaurants, experiences, anything you can think of. If I can tell you exactly what you need to know, and how to go about it, you are gold.
Ithaka does exactly that! We are an on-demand chat based assistant where you talk to a real travel expert (NOT LIKE THE SALES REPS AT OTHER TRAVEL WEBSITES) who has actually been to the destination (we only serve Thailand and some parts of SE Asia at the moment), and we help you out with anything you need.
Our vision is to create an ecosystem around travel, for everything from flights, hotels, experiences etc and keep the traveler’s experience limited to a simple, intuitive on-demand interface.
Please download the app here (Android and iOS) and tell us how to make it better.
Connect with us on twitter @ithakatravel or with me personally @astronautameya
We’re already making some money off commissions, but we really want to focus on building a travel community right now, there are multiple monetisation channels here – direct bookings, paid listings and so on.
Really appreciate all the help 🙂
asha chaudhry
wow. i’m super intrigued ameya – you had me at the “spent 5 largely unproductive years at IIT Bombay.” !!
i love the idea. we’re into travel big time (well used to be before we became parents) and the idea appeals for sure.
quick q’s – how big is your team? if you’re talking to real live travel experts – you’d really need quite a few!
if it’s FREE, how will you make money? (everyone asks that q :)) will you be getting a commission from the places you recommend?
pls add your twitter handle at the end so i can mention it while tweeting!!
asha chaudhry
ps: have you approached any travel startups with your app?
we have many rodinhooders from the travel space – will share this link with them!
Ameya Sahasrabudhe
Hey Asha!
our twitter handle is @ithakatravel and my personal one is @astronautameya
The idea is to create an ecosystem around travel, for everything from flights, hotels, experiences etc and keep the traveler’s experience limited to a simple, intuitive on-demand interface.
We’re already making some money off commissions, but we really want to focus on building a travel community right now, there are multiple monetisation channels here – direct bookings, paid listings and so on.
Our team is 6 people now and growing!
Haven’t approached any other startups yet, but would love to be introduced to some, thank you so much 🙂
asha chaudhry
hey ameya,
can you add all this info on your post (just edit it in appropriate places) – especially the twitter handles. i’ve shared your post with akshay chhugani of ixigo. will share with everyone else i know on monday. travelling today 🙂
all the best!
Rishi
Pretty neat idea. 🙂
I rarely download apps that are posted here, but I was really curious about this one because I love travel. As someone who’s backpacked before, I always found the best advice has come from fellow travelers, locals etc. so if you can pull it off at scale without sounding like a salesman you’re off to a great start!
On the app — liked the fact you guys were able to build a simple MVP using Konotor, there was no friction in signing up, nice UI.
Few things you might want to improve: 1. It’s a chat interface… so many times while you guys were typing stuff, I was wondering if you guys were still there or if I lost you guys. I don’t know if Konotor has a feature where you can send notifications while you’re “typing…” and the other person is waiting…that should be helpful.
2. I guess you guys have some questions/scripts ready to copy-paste to avoid typing things every time. I think it is perfectly fine, but it’d be great if a user is not sent the questions that have been answered already. A bit of human touch/intervention goes a long way.
3. It’d be great if you guys went a little deeper into what you might suggest; a bit more personal. ex: something like “when I was in Thailand, I spent an entire night partying at this beach….it was real fun because…” you get my drift! 🙂
4. As someone who’s tried to build a messaging platform before, here’s the part I struggle with. I spent about 25-30 min talking to you guys today. The big question you guys need to answer is — is it worth for users to spend time on so many messages back and forth on your platform. How can you make the experience so much better/personal than a simple Google search?
p.s you might want to consider changing the title of this post — it sounds like you’re talking about an AI powered bot/assistant.
Best wishes guys! 🙂
Ameya Sahasrabudhe
Done, and thanks!
Ameya Sahasrabudhe
Hey Rishi
Thanks for the feedback!
We are working on the “Ithaka is typing..” part, Konotor doesnt have this functionality sadly.
We have a hybrid of canned responses and human touch, but we actually rely more on human interaction at the moment to understand what works best.
Personal touch is a great idea, lets give that a shot and see how the travelers respond 🙂
I think it is entirely worth it spending the time on the app. The reason isnt that the in-app experience is mindblowing, but that we give you clear, verified actionable info on demand.
You’ll have to spend time going through google results, cross referencing sources and sometimes still come up short. With us, it is a 0 to 1 jump. With an improved app, information consumption will be a much smoother process.
asha chaudhry
love your feedback rishi!
wish i could clone you 🙂
i agree on the title part. ameya do you wanna add the word ‘(real)’ in the title so there’s no confusion?
Ameya Sahasrabudhe
Done, you guys are awesome!
Alok Rodinhood Kejriwal
i like your energy.. As you know, i tested the app and the response was pretty nice! Challenge is to scale.
I will promote you guys for sure this week
This is what happened
Ameya Sahasrabudhe
Thanks a ton Alok, I hope to match your energy levels some day!
Puneet Nirogam Aggarwal
Asha, If you remember NPC 2013, I had shared something similar with you on a bench just outside the Cafe at Taj Vivanta. I am glad that somebody has executed it.
asha chaudhry
:))) now that you mention it, yes. we all just love the travel space naa puneet?!
Siddhant Jain
Hi Ameya, sounds like a very neat idea. I checked out the app, liked the UI/UX. clean, neat and fast. The chat response also was good.
I would imagine scaling up would be a challenge since it is human resource intensive right? Also how do you plan to close a deal? in the sense, I chatted for a while, about a trip I may want to go for, but didn’t decide on anything.
Also just curious, why Ithaka?
Ameya Sahasrabudhe
Well, the human resource dependence would carve a bell shaped curve, as tech catches up and takes over automation.
We’ve been able to close sales with travelers when we went for it, hotel bookings, flights, etc.
Right now, the focus is on building the community, so we’re very un-salesy 🙂
Why Ithaka? I’m glad you asked!
https://zenpencils.com/blog/readerofthemonth/reader-ithaka/