Via launches pre-paid cards that assure lowest hotel fares

Planning leisure or a business trip just got simpler with the new product offering from Bangalore-headquartered travel network company – Via. The company has introduced a very innovative over the counter (OTC) offering for hotel room bookings across the country under the brand Via Rooms.

“It's like a pre-paid card used to book a hotel room across the country. The card can be bought from a host of retail outlets and are priced starting from Rs 499 (for dormitory type accommodations) going up to Rs 5,999 for five-star hotel rooms,” said Vinay Gupta, co-founder and CEO, Via.

 From l-R:
Vinay Gupta & Sujit Naha

Among other advantages of using the Via channel for hotels and holiday bookings across the country is that it has a network of over 50,000 registered agents across 1,700 cities. As a result, customers are able to get all the possible on-ground assistance required during their travel including identifying the best mode of travel and its cost.

Via had initially tested a distress hotel inventory sale concept in business to business (B2B) segment during the economic downturn phase. The said model allowed hotels to put their unsold (distress) inventory on Via's network at highly discounted rates to be picked up by travel agents across seeking hotel rooms for their clients. Having tasted success with the earlier concept, the company decided to tweak and extended it to the end user in a business to consumer (B2C) format wherein the end user picks up the pre-paid card or calls up the call center to make his reservations.

In the latter case however (booking through the call center), the end user is required to pay 20% of the hotel room booking cost upfront and the balance at the time of check-in or check-out. The customer also has the option to choose his mode of payment viz. cash, card etc wherein a nearest located Via travel agent will come over to the customers residence and pick up the payment as per the customers convenience.

To facilitate the internet savvy customers, the company also offers the online facility of booking hotel rooms and air tickets through its url www.via.com. The company is also working on an international website to tap the inbound traffic looking to buy hotel and travel products for their India visit.

“The best part however is the pricing which is lowest fares for hotels. Besides, there are no hidden costs to the Via Rooms offering and the price includes breakfast and taxes. So the users are not required to pay a single extra rupee as far as their hotel accommodation cost is concerned,” Gupta said.

Taking the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) model, Via has partnered with 100,000 retail outlets including the likes of Shopper's Stop, Big Bazaar and stores that focus on selling mobile phone airtime across the country. After purchasing the Via Rooms card, the end user is required to call up the travel network's call center and provide card details in addition to the desired location for the hotel accommodation. The call center executive will accordingly provide room availability details / options and proceed with booking the room once confirmed.

“Strict quality checks are conducted even before getting a particular hotel in the Via Rooms network. The end user is thus assured of a certain standard and quality of accommodation in the category s/he chooses to book. Our network across the country includes close to 1,800 hotels and are adding 25 to 30 hotels to the portfolio every week,” Gupta said.

In India, the company is initially focusing on 60 key cities which are largely in the tier I and II category and some leisure destinations with this pre-paid card service. On the international front Via has already launched a pilot in Philippines and is expected to launch in Indonesia within a month. The management is targeting presence in 35 international locations in the next 24 months.

Of the network of 100,000 outlets across India, Via envisages a conversion rate of 10% to 15% in the initial stages thereby selling 10,000 to 15,000 cards on a daily basis. Growing at a CAGR of 65%, the company clocked a turnover of Rs 1,400 crore in the previous financial year and is targeting to close this year at Rs 2,500 crore. With investors in the form of NEA-IndoUS Ventures and Sequoia Capital, the promoters of Via are looking to list the company on the bourses in the coming year.

“We should be kick-starting the process soon and should be ready to go public sometime early next fiscal. In all we would be targeting to raise anything between $300 to $400 million,” said Gupta without divulging whether they will go for domestic or international listing.