Travelguru.com

Hotel Bookings

After its inception in the year 2005, Travelguru shifted its focus to hotels in May 2006 and soon became one of the most promising online travel portals. The acquisition of Desiya in November 2006 boosted Travelguru’s global goodwill in terms of hotels and travel destinations. Soon after, Travelguru.com became India’s largest online travel portal in terms of B2B and B2C hotel properties business. Travelguru.com specialises in hotel bookings and business trip planning. Travelguru.com features the largest selection of hotels across India. The range of hotels includes luxury, five star, three star and budget hotels. Travelguru.com is one of the earliest online travel ventures in India.

History

Travelguru.com was founded by Ashwin Damera and Jarad Fisher in 2005, while the two were studying at Harvard Business School. The business plan placed second in the HBS Business Plan Competition and Travelguru.com originally aimed to serve as India’s first one-stop travel portal (offering air, hotel and car rentals). In the summer of 2005, Fisher left the business and Ganesh Rangasamy stepped in and joined Damera. Travelguru shifted its focus from offering flights bookings to hotel bookings in the year 2006. Soon after, Travelguru acquired Desiya.com. The acquisition was regarded as a significant step up for Travelguru in terms of market, quality and quantity of hotels. In October 2007, Travelguru launched Hotels Ka Guru Ad campaign which received accolades from all the sectors of the society and the corporate world. The global meltdown in the year 2008-09 affected the Ecommerce businesses significantly. This was the time when Travelguru faced financial difficulties and survived on the small loans from Sequoia-Battery Ltd. The online travel company was taken over by Travelocity global in the year 2009. In the year 2011, Travelguru.com forayed into retail market by introducing 12 profitable mall stores all over India. In June 2012, Travelocity global sold Travelguru.com to the Indian travel giants Yatra.com.

Inception

Ashwin Damera, a student at Harvard Business School inspired by the significance growth of the E-Commerce market in India founded Travelguru.com with his classmate Ganesh Rangaswamy. Travelguru.com was the coincidental conclusion of a midnight chat between the two founders. In 2005, Ashwin Damera had a brilliant idea of starting an online travel portal which incidentally was the need of the hour for booming Indian E-Commerce market. The business plan was pitch perfect and won second place in the Harward business plan contest. A year later, Ashwin and Ganesh acquired enough investors to launch Travelguru.com on World Wide Web.

Acquisition of Desiya

The acquisition of New Jersey-based B2B travel portal Desiya by Travelguru was one of the first online travel deals between two big giants of the travel industry. The then CEO of Travelguru.com, Ashwin Damera decided to expand Travelguru’s reach by making a swift and quick entry into online B2B travel market of India. Desiya.com was a New Jersey-based online travel company having offices in New Jersey, London, Kolkata and Gurgaon. At the time of acquisition, Desiya.com had a strong clientele of 1000 travel agents and 225 travel portals. The deal was believed to be worth Rs. 100 Crores (Approx $25 million). The acquisition of Desiya was funded by US based battery ventures and Sequoia Capital Partners India.

Travelocity Takeover

In August 2009, Travelocity Global had acquired the distribution network of Travelguru.com. At the time of the takeover, Travelocity was one of the world’s largest online travel companies and Travelguru.com was one of the emerging market leaders in Indian E-Commerce sector. Travelguru had access to more than 4000 hotels in India and had a strong domestic base. The takeover was seen as an opportunity for Travelocity India to build teams and relationships in India. The strong domestic customer base of Travelguru.com helped Travelocity India to grow their national dominance. Even after the takeover, Travelguru.com continued its operation as a standalone business and brand in India which focused on Hotels demand, supply and a wholesome distribution network within the country. Travelguru.com and Travelocity worked together and brought about some noteworthy profits to Indian hotel suppliers, with an inflated demand and a wide range of redistribution partners. The collaboration also benefited Indian travellers with an increased broadcast of choice of travel deals across all hotels in India. However, Travelocity sold Travelguru.com to the Indian online travel giants Yatra.com in the year 2012.

Yatra.com Takeover

Yatra.com, one of the leaders of online travel industry in India bought Travelguru.com from Travelocity in mid June 2012. The takeover strengthened Yatra.com’s position as a leading online Indian travel company. At the time of takeover, Travelguru.com had access to more than 6500 hotels in India and almost 72000 hotels worldwide and was a fourth player behind Yatra.com in the online travel industry. The idea behind this takeover was to combine the strengths of both the portals and bridge the gap between makemytrip.com in the hotel booking segment. The acquisition also promised strong financial growth for both the parties. The collaboration brought significant changes in the Indian travel industry by swelling the demand of the consumers and delivering them with best deals and services under a single leadership. Travelguru.com now operates as a 100% subsidiary of Yatra.com. Travelguru was Yatra.com’s fourth major takeover in the span of 18 months.