Travel Deals Aggregator Launched

Here is a travel portal with “difference”. MeraTrip.com does not actually allow you to book tickets. But it lets you know what are the hottest deals in the travel mart. So it’s an aggregator of travel deals. It hopes to make money from listing fee and advertising which it intend to kick off once the traffic grows. The portal was launched in January 2006. Their business actually depends on eyeballs and the newsletter subscriber base they garner over time. Till that time, I am sure airline companies will depend on good old newspapers and TV channels to advertise their offers.
I had a quick email chat with its founder V Gopi Krishna on their model. His response below:

Business Model
On the Supply side, MeraTrip will enable travel companies (airlines, hotels etc.) with a fast, flexible, and cost-effective way to directly reach their end customers. Currently, most travel companies are dependent on intermediaries (travel agents, brokers and commission agents) for their business. Travel companies end up paying any where between 10% to 25% as commission fees to these intermediaries. Naturally, an agent will be more inclined to promote companies that pay him the maximum commission.
By being able to reach customers directly, travel companies will a) save on commission fee and b) are not at the mercy of the agent to get their companies promoted.
On the Demand side, MeraTrip will provide consumers with a free source of information on current sales and specials from travel companies.

How do we do it?
Our publications include the MeraTrip.com Website and the MeraTrip.comTravel deals email newsletter. Travel companies will be able to advertise their offers on the website and also in the newsletter. Consumers will know about these offers when they visit the MeraTrip.com website and when they receive the travel deals newsletter.

Why travel vertical?
There are not many other industries that have gone the internet way unlike travel. Lack of Supply is the biggest issue — There are not hundreds of companies selling laptops for example or selling toaster ovens. On the demand side, consumers may still prefer to look-and-feel before they buy. (But consumers have given the thumbs up for online railway and train ticketing).

How will we make money?
Currently, travel companies are advertising for Free on MeraTrip.com — This is an introductory offer. Starting March-2007, we will start charging a listing fee if a travel company wants to list their deals on MeraTrip. Also, we will charge a fee if a travel company wants to list their deals in the newsletter.

Nikhil adds: MeraTrip isn’t the only travel deal aggregator in India: there is tripMela, launched in Feb ’06, which already has a cost-per-click advertising revenue model in operation. Apparently its ‘Best Deals’ newsletters are limited to the top ten, and there’s also a city guide being developed. I’d earlier observed a lack of differentiation among travel portals; how much scope is there for differentiation among aggregators?

Comments have been disabled for this post