Tripvillas is agent friendly

In the holiday rental industry in India since 2013, Tripvillas is now actively looking for reputed travel agents to appoint as its General Selling Agents

To push its two products –villas and homestays – in the Indian market, Tripvillas is looking to tap offline travel agents. Roshan D’Silva, CEO, Tripvillas, says, “We currently do not have a direct tie-up with offline agents and have chosen to work through aggregators. In India, a travel agent can have access to our product through Via.com and international travel agents can access our product through Tourico travels in Florida. However, we are actively looking for new reputed travel agents to appoint as our General Selling Agents and will continue to support both Via and Tourico in their efforts to broaden the base.” It is looking for travel agents with a strong presence in the upper mid-market as well as specialised agents handling family travel, corporate groups, weddings, and celebrity travel. “We are open and supportive to any ideas and would be happy to engage with other companies for mutual benefit,” he says. It has also tied up with a few OTAs such as MakeMyTrip, Goibibo, Yatra, Travelguru, Via.com as well as international online companies like Ctrip, Ostrovok, Booking.com, Agoda and Expedia. The company recently partnered with Homeexchange.com to reach out to more holiday-makers in India. D’Silva adds, “A majority of our portfolio comprises villas and homestays. Villas allow a group to stay together with exclusive access to the complete property along with a caretaker and cook.”

Tripvillas is targeting upper- middle class families and people in the 25-50 age group. Its typical customer groups are single families, families who holiday together and joint families. In the pipeline are multiple training programs, materials and in-person seminars for the travel trade. “We offer special payment terms to travel agents who are IATA-certified and pass our credit checks. By partnering with Tripvillas, travel agents get the only single source of over 200,000 verified holiday homes and homestays across the globe to offer their customers. Our policies are travel agent-friendly and gives them a good opportunity to generate additional revenue and provide a valuable service to their customers,” he adds.