New online booking platform claims to ‘turn people into travel agents’
A new booking platform called TRVL, which claims to “turn people into travel agents”, has raised $2.7 million in funding from angel investors.
“TRVL is turning people into travel agents the way Airbnb is turning people into hosts”, claims the company
“TRVL is turning people into travel agents the way Airbnb is turning people into hosts”, claims the company.
The peer-to-peer travel booking platform allows anyone to make bookings for others and earn a commission of up to 10% on every booking they make, for themselves or for others.
The platform was founded by Jochem Wijnands, who sold his previous company Prss to Apple. It has been in beta testing for nine months and has launched to the public in May.
Wijnands said: “By open sourcing travel and adding an earning model, we’re introducing a service level to online travel bookings that is missing today. Think of TRVL as TripAdvisor with an earning model. We believe TRVL it will change the way millions of people will book their trips online.”
TRVL is headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands and employs 12 people.
It allows people to book trips for themselves and the people they’re traveling with, recommend and share trips with others and run their own “customisable travel booking website”.
TRVL’s partners are Booking.com, Expedia-owned Hotels.com and TripAdvisor.
“TRVL expects to announce new partners and products in the coming months,” said the firm in a statement.
“TRVL receives a commission on every booking made through the platform and passes on the majority share of that commission to the TRVL agent responsible for the booking.”