Lateral linkages

Travelguru has been launched as a search engine for best deals and prices.

If the success of any team is its body language, Travelguru seems to have got it right. There's just that edge of excitement, that resonance of confidence, and the ability to relay information like a baton that the managemant team shuffles amidst itself before disseminating it outwards.

"We're going to be the Google of the travel industry," says Ashwin Damera, CEO (and co-founder along with Ganesh Rengaswamy) of the online metasearch travel solutions company, with a disarming conviction that is infectious.

But are Damera & Co overconfident of selling their services? This, after all, is India: internet penetration is low; the enquiry module is not individual-driven; and payment by credit card "" that's a no-no, right?

Er, wrong, insists Damera. "India is like China?" he volleys back a question (and pardon the grammar). Okay, you hedge tentatively. "Well, Ctrip in China (which he says would be Travelguru's equivalent in that country) is a $1 billion company."

Gosh!
Just for the record, Travelguru went live earlier this month, having taken shape as a Harvard business School project ("Can you imagine calling travel agents from the United States to ask about fares, or logging on to airline sites that wouldn't work," Damera explains the genesis of the original scheme).

It was started with $250,000 as seed money from friends and former colleagues, and went on to win WestBridge Capital Partners as venture capitalists with a $10 million investment in the company. And Damera says he hopes to confirm two UK-based VC firms in a month's time. And if that seems like a lot of money for a property that is essentially online, whoa: "I'm looking at a turnover of $100 million in three years' time," he promises. Oh, and "breakeven in 18 months".

What is it that Travelguru is selling? Essentially, if you log on to www.travelguru.com, you get all available domestic airline fares inclusive of taxes, helping you compare prices at just a glance; ditto international fares; and a range of hotels in 40-odd locations where rooms (in different price brackets) are available.

Ho-hum, you might well say, a $100 million from that?

"We'll break even in 18 months,"confirms Damera, on 1,000 transactions a day (650-700 by the end of a year). Where Travelguru believes its strength lies in in the technology it uses which is different from search engine makemytrip.com, for instance. "We quote the price inclusive of all taxes," he explains, "and have only those fares that are available at that point of time."

In other words, if a Rs 999 fare isn't available, it won't be listed. Also, unlike other search engines, Travelguru offers all airlines on its site, including those like Air Deccan, Kingfisher and SpiceJet that typically do not dispense commissions. "Eventually," says Damera, "we hope to move to the flat fee model, say Rs 50 per ticket, that we will charge irrespective of the class of the ticket."

This distinction, he says, marks it from a travel agent service which is usually delayed (checking on flights, prices, availability, which they furnish instantly), and which can be skewed in favour of those airlines that pay higher commissions.

In addition, Travelguru can work in combinations, to provide, for example, the cheapest fares on different sectors on different airlines. "We're launching our campaign that says, 'Travel cheap or travel free'," explains Devyani Nagpal, chief marketing officer. "We will find you the cheapest of class flights on Travelguru."

More is in the pipeline "" signing a consortium of 55,000 international hotels, adding more hotels to the domestic network ("Three-star rooms with wi-fi," explains Nagpal, illustrating what business travellers are most in need of), car rentals, vacation packages, perhaps even travel insurance, cruises...

Yet, what's the guarantee that Travelguru will become (or remain) the leader of the pack? "Technology," says Damera, "will be our USP, and the fact that we've been first in the market, that our inventories will become larger over time", and the loyalty (not of the fickle variety that customers practise) but of the travel industry who, as partners, will share the edge Travelguru offers business travellers.

Interested? That's toll free: 1600 22 4878.