STARTUP STAGE: TransferTravel.com wants to be the "eBay" of travel

TransferTravel

TransferTravel is a peer-to-peer marketplace designed to help people sell their unwanted tickets and reservations to travelers looking for bargains. 

Speaking with PhocusWire, founder and CEO Simon Powell discusses TransferTravel's relationships with OTAs and insurance companies, how the company fills a genuine need in the travel market and more. 

Describe both the business and technology aspects of your startup.

The easiest way to describe our business and tech is to say that we aspire to be the "eBay of travel." We are a web-based marketplace platform where people who have unwanted pre-booked and nonrefundable travel, holidays, accommodation or tickets can use us to recoup some of their money. Sellers will list their product on our site including the original cost and a preferred price (buyers can make offers).

Sellers are encouraged to fill out profiles, with photos and the reason for being unable to travel. TransferTravel.com will then verify that all bookings are genuine. The responsibility for the cost and administration of any name changes falls on the vendor.

Bargain holidaymakers can come to our site to find some great deals. TransferTravel.com operates on a no-sale, no-fee basis, only collecting a 15% fee when a successful transfer is made.

What inspired you to create this company?

A painful relationship breakup left me with a romantic holiday for two to Dubai. It was burning a serious hole in my pocket - as it was worth 3,000 pounds and was something I no longer needed. I could get some money back for the flights, but I couldn’t cancel the hotel package, which I had prepaid for.

The hotel receptionist gave me the idea that I could find someone else to take my booking - they would allow my reservation to be transferred. But, due to the absence of an efficient platform for people to sell their unwanted travel, I had no luck.

But I thought that I could create the first online marketplace dedicated to travelers who want to sell their unwanted but nonrefundable flights, accommodation and cruises.

Give us your SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis of the company.

• Strengths: We are a small, young and nimble team. There is genuine need for a company like ours as we grew to over 100,000 users within the first 18 months without any advertising budget!
• Weaknesses: Education is key! As we are an innovate company, which allowed us to find the gap in a market and create an opportunity, it’s all about awareness. So educating the world on their options and rights will take time, but we have a dedicated team and plan to get this implemented.
• Opportunities: Working with travel booking sites and the insurance industry will potentially provide a significant increase in listings, as they are both overwhelmed with millions of cancelation requests for nonrefundable travel each year.
• Threats: Being able to fulfill demand quickly enough. 

What are the travel pain points you are trying to alleviate from both the customer and the industry perspective?

Research has found that 200,000 hotel rooms are wasted in the United States each year, and a lot of them are prepaid, and an estimated $40 billion of prebooked and unused travel is wasted annually worldwide.

We can prevent a lot of wasted airline seats and beds - and help ensure that local communities don’t miss out on the benefits of holidaymakers due to cancellations.

Share this quote

 Moreover, TransferTravel.com’s own research has found that 42% of consumers have had to cancel a trip at some point, due to illness (42%), family emergency (26%), breakup (17%), work (11%) or financial difficulties (11%). Many of these reasons are not covered by insurance.

So you've got the product, now how will you get lots of customers?

We have ambitious plans for growth and an objective to secure over a million users by the end of 2018, and we are looking at a number of different avenues to do this. We are looking to form partnerships with insurance companies - who will recommend TransferTravel.com if a claim is not valid - and online travel agencies.

One well-known OTA has told us they experience 4,000 cancellations a day. We can prevent a lot of wasted airline seats and beds - and help ensure that local communities don’t miss out on the benefits of holidaymakers due to cancellations.

Tell us what process you've gone through to establish a genuine need for your company and the size of the addressable market.

I have not created the genuine need for our company - there was a gap there and I’m helping to fill it. One of the biggest processes we need to go through is to educate the public that 80% of travel is transferrable.

Thanks to the liberalization of the Package Travel Regulations, transferring a package holiday has just gotten easier - as of July 1 - and I am hoping that the Civil Aviation Authority review into airline terms and conditions will also ensure that all airlines will have to ensure that name changes are allowed.

Currently, most charter airlines and no-frills airlines allow name changes for a fee, but that’s not the case of the big legacy carriers such as British Airways.

How and when will you make money?

We have been fortunate to secure two rounds of funding. Money-wise, we are post-revenue now, but we will not look to make a profit for the next three years, as we are investing all our money back into our business to support the tech and staff for the anticipated growth.

What are the backgrounds and previous achievements of the founding team, and why do you have what it takes to succeed with this business?

I set up the company by myself, and I previously worked in affiliate marketing and set up several lead-generating sites. Before that I worked in marketing and sales for regional radio and telecommunications companies.

What's been the most difficult part of founding the business so far?

I have lived in the Isle of Man for eight years, and while we have offices in London and San Francisco, our headquarters are here in the Isle of Man.

Travelling to meetings, recruiting staff and raising funds from here have probably been my main challenges, but I love it here and will always live here, but our staffing has to be focused in the London and San Francisco office now.

Generally, travel startup’s face a fairly tough time making an impact - so why are you going to be one of lucky ones?

There is a genuine need for us. No one is solving this problem, and when the world’s largest booking sites are wanting to partner with us, it proves there is a huge gap in the marketing.