Tailor-made travel on your fingertips

The costs of air tickets and hotel rooms may have often made you cancel your travel plans or choose more affordable destinations.

But now you have the option of travelling wherever you want within India, and that too within your budget. A travel portal has launched a service wherein you can quote your budget, and find tickets and rooms to fit that budget.

According to the ‘Mera Price Mera Offer’ service launched by Via.com, the traveller just has to quote his or her price, and the portal will provide an entire list of hotel deals and air tickets available. The service aims to provide reasonable pricing vis-a-vis the space capacity that exists in airlines, hotels and car rental services.

According to Vinay Gupta, CEO and founder of Via.com, “This unique ‘demand generation system’ uses the information sharing and communication power of the internet to create a different way of pricing services, based on real-time consumer demand and help-supplier partners (airlines and hotels) to sell their excess capacity to a differentiated segment of buyers.”

The customer is thus able to buy a flight, hotel, or holiday at a substantial discount below the retail price, and the seller is able to ensure that the entire inventory is sold.

“The process creates a balance between the interests of buyers, who are willing to accept trade-offs like not necessarily travelling at a particular date and time, and sellers, who are prepared to generate incremental revenue by filling up unsold inventory without cannibalising on existing businesses,” said Gupta.