A travel entrepreneur is urging the trade to back a new venture which will enable agents and operators to bid on customer travel enquiries.
Zara Khambata told TTG she was planning to launch Holiday Haggle at the end of October, with the aim of “generating a lot of business for a lot of people”.
The website will operate on a similar model to the likes of Rated People, where a consumer places a request and is then approached by a tradesman.
Prospective holidaymakers will fill in an online form outlining where and when they would like to travel, as well as how much they are willing to pay.
This will then be fed through the system and pushed out to any agents and operators that have signed up.
“The agents would then receive a notification to let them know that a holiday requirement had come through and they would then respond directly though the portal back to the consumer,” Khambata said.
Whatever offers come though can then be filtered and the consumer can then, if they wish, go back to the agent and negotiate.
A further feature of the website will be an area called Last Chance Haggle, which will allow consumers to bid on late deals.
‘Unique model’
Khambata said she believed she was unique in offering this business model in the travel sector.
For consumers the service will be free, while agents and operators will pay a flat fee of £795 per year. Khambata, however, is so confident in the product that she said she would offer the first three months for free.
“The website will be finished by the end of October and then obviously I need to get the agents onboard, so I don’t want to be charging everybody loads and loads,” she said.
Holiday Haggle will also generate revenues from the cost of telephone calls.
No agents or operators have so far signed up. However, Khambata is convinced she will be able to persuade companies to register interest following a number of successful meetings at Abta’s recent Travel Convention.
“There’s not been one person who I’ve spoken to who has said: ‘that’s pretty ridiculous’, or ‘that’s awful’ or ‘that’s not going to work’ or ‘I’m not interested’. From my point of view that’s great,” she said.
Khambata also rejects criticism it will lead to a race to the bottom, with agents fixated on cutting costs rather than providing service.
“At the end of the day it’s about getting the holiday at the price the customer wants to pay,” she said.
