TLabs Showcase on travel startups featuring UK-based package holiday search engine Travelmatch.
Who and what are you (including personnel and backgrounds)?
Travelmatch is a revolutionary travel search and price comparison website that allows consumers to find their perfect holiday and then compare offers from major UK tour operators and travel agents to get the best deal.
Founders Alex Francis and Jonny Marsh are part of a core full time team of 12 people who are committed to developing a great product. We also have advisors from the travel industry including David Scowsill and Brent Hoberman.
What financial support did you have to launch the business?
We closed our first major round of funding in January 2010 from strategic investors, including David Scowsill (formerly CEO of Opodo, ex-Easyjet and British Airways), Jon Moulton (formerly of Alchemy, founder of Better Capital) and other leading figures from a range of industries.
What problem are you trying to solve?
Finding your perfect holiday online currently takes a huge amount of research, planning and effort. Frustrating much of this time is often completely wasted as you trawl through brochures or websites looking for hotels that meet your criteria, only to find out the cost is out of your budget or there is no longer any availability.
Frequently, people return to places they have been before because they either can’t find what they are looking for elsewhere or they don’t want to risk the holiday going wrong.
We aimed to solve both problems by building a travel site that enabled consumers to find their perfect holiday with just a few clicks, allowing them to compare hotels in many destinations that meet whatever criteria they may have, while also finding the best offers available to ensure the most value for money.
Describe the business, core products and services?
Travelmatch enables consumers to find their perfect holiday by searching nearly 10 million package holidays without any of the constraints associated with the current generation of travel websites.
This makes the process of finding a holiday much less time consuming, but just as fun as you don’t waste time reading endless hotel brochure text checking for all of the things you are looking for.
We also hold pricing data so the site is lightning fast, unlike some of the competition in the holiday price comparison space where you can go away and make a cup of tea while you wait for results to come back!
We support users at any stage of the research process, and have made the site useful regardless of how much or how little they know about their holiday.
We inspire users at the start of the process, helping them find their perfect hotel and then compare deals from various tour operators and travel agents so they can find the best deal for that hotel.
Who are your key customers and users at launch?
We believe we have 3 major groups of customers:
Need inspiration - no idea of where they want to go or what they want to do, for example:
- I’ve got a week’s holiday to take in May
- I don’t like flying so no more than 4 hours on a plane
- I want to go somewhere I’ve never been before
- I’d like to go somewhere hot to top up my tan
Those who know a destination/activity but haven’t yet found a hotel/holiday that suits their requirements, for example:
- I’d like to go to Ibiza
- A Spa holiday will help me relax and unwind
- I have £500 per person to spend on a Villa holiday
Those who know exactly what they want and are looking for the best deal. for example:
- Best deal flying from Manchester airport on 15th June and staying at the Hotel Atlantis in Belek
- How much can I save if I can fly at any time of day from either London Heathrow or London Gatwick on 18th September +/- 5 days to 5* hotels in Lara Beach, Turkey
Did you have customers validate your idea before investors?Yes – we initially spoke to friends and family, followed by people in the travel industry to gauge interest in the product. We then conducted numerous surveys which backed up our understanding that the majority of users know what they want to do on holiday rather than where they want to go.
What is the business AND revenue model, strategy for profitability?
Currently, our business model is an affiliate model where we earn booking commission from partners who are present on our site.
SWOT analysis – strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats?
Strengths:
- Unique search
- Proven business model in other sectors (e.g. insurance, flights, car hire)
- Good strategic partnerships with operators
- Strong website design, function and technology
- Exceptional technical team with experience of building stable, scalable platforms
- Advanced analytical platform helps find issues and opportunities quickly
- Low cost base
Weaknesses:
- Relatively low profile and awareness in the general public at present
- Partner sites purchase process has a large impact on conversion rates
- Relatively small advertising budget
- Limited scope of marketing activities
Opportunities:
- Accomodation Only product
- International expansion
- Development of niche versions of the site e.g. Luxury
- White label service for potential partners
- Expand product into other verticals outside travel
- Reward programs
- Social media development
Threats:
- Icelandic volcanoes
- Global economic climate
Who advised you your idea isn't going to be successful and why didn't you listen to them?Most people we spoke to were very encouraging and supportive – but inevitably there were a few who dismissed the idea out of hand, particularly those who had previously tried and failed to build something similar. We didn’t believe that previous failure meant it couldn’t be done!
What is your success metric 12 months from now?
Our product being widely used, understood and valued by consumers searching for holidays. A constantly growing user base built on recommendations to friends, particularly via social media. A large percentage of our users being returning users.
NB: TLabs Showcase is part of the wider TLabs project from Tnooz.