Planning a holiday? Buy tickets online at Travoo.com

Planning a holiday? Buy tickets online at Travoo.com

By Vishnu K. Mahmud

JAKARTA (JP): Need to buy a ticket for a last minute flight to
Singapore? Or do you want to know the best and latest price for a
package tour to Hong Kong? Or perhaps you'd like to book a cozy
hotel room in Ubud? Let your mouse do the clicking as you
traverse the Indonesian on-line travel site, Travoo.com.

Launched in April of this year, Travoo offers real-time online
reservations for the Internet user. This means you can
immediately know if that particular flight or hotel is available
at that particular price and date. Although some travel agencies
offer special packages or airline discounts on the web, the user
would have to contact the travel agent via phone, fax or e-mail
and wait for their reply to determine the availability of that
item. With Travoo, all of this can be done in real time
instantly.

The user interface for the site is pretty straight forward.
Once logged in (registration is free), the user can choose from
the menu on the upper right-hand side of the screen. Travoo
offers flight reservations, hotel bookings, domestic train
tickets, worldwide car rentals and vacation packages. Linked to
the Galileo International Central Reservations System, Travoo has
a huge database on airlines and hotels with their various fares
and rates.

When the system has located an available airline seat or hotel
room of your choice, you can pay online by either using your
credit card number or Internet banking. For the latter, you can
debit your Bank International Indonesia (BII) or Bank Central
Asia (BCA) account via the Internet. The site is protected by
Secure Sockets Layer technology at 128 bits to encrypt your
financial details. As another precaution, the tickets are sent to
the billing address of the credit card or bank. If the address is
different, Travoo will double check with the account holder
first.

Once the transaction is complete, the user should receive a
confirmation e-mail within minutes, detailing the date, place and
price. The ticket or voucher should arrive within three days. If
you are in a real hurry, you can browse the site to check
availability and call in to make your order. The ticket can be
sent within the same day if given adequate notice. Simple, no?

Although individuals can use Travoo.com, the site is ideal for
corporate clients. Corporate members may receive special
corporate rates, obtain detailed reports on travel expenses and
establish travel policies. Travoo also offers a credit line for
Indonesia and Singapore-based companies. Individual traveler
preferences are stored on-line so that each company's travel
coordinator can refer to each person's needs and requests (such
as a preferred window seat and vegetarian food).

Niken Suryo of the marketing communications department for
JATIS Solutions, a client of Travoo.com, said she finds it
beneficial because the use of e-mail and the Internet (which use
written mediums) minimizes any potential misunderstandings. It is
faster and more reliable. Reserving airlines or hotels are just a
few clicks away.

So far, Travoo has over 30 corporate customers with steady
transactions. Five months after its April launch, the site has
generated over Rp 800 million in revenue, with nearly half of
that in the month of August alone. According to Ferri Limputra,
Travoo's CEO, the company hopes to reach profitability by next
year. They are currently on track to break even by the end of
this year.

Limputra insists that Travoo is not a mere dotcom. The company
is a licensed travel agency with representative offices in
Singapore and Malaysia. They offer other travel services such as
MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conventions and Exhibitions)
consultancies, customized tours, corporate outings and
reservation systems for travel suppliers. The business plan was
not formulated to achieve quick capital gain but to establish a
professional service-based company using traditional revenue
models.

The company has received their share of concerns but Limputra
trusts that the site shall continue to evolve to become more
efficient and user-friendly. In response to many clients'
expectations that the site become like Microsoft's Expedia or
Travelocity.com, Limputra says that Mona Lisa was painted or the
Sistine Chapel was not build overnight.

Travoo.com has managed to become a site that is both Business
to Consumers (B2C) and Business to Business (B2B) oriented.
Making it easier for both individuals and corporations to manage
their travel plans is nothing new but the real-time aspect for
on-line reservations and efficient access to travel professionals
gives more power to the consumers.

While other Internet companies are scrambling for more
investors and revenue streams, Travoo is planning to expand their
area of service to the Asia Pacific region. At the moment,
members in Singapore can have their ticket issued in the Lion
City. Although the company's founders are not major travel
industry players (most are MBA's, engineers or in management),
they are frequent travelers who have experienced the pain and
suffering of travel planning.

Armed with the knowledge of what went wrong and how to improve
the service, Travoo was born. Now, in Indonesia, you can log on
the Internet, buy your ticket at a reasonable price and go
straight to the airport. Have net, will travel!
(vmahmud@yahoo.com)