Meet Travelcheck.co.za – a new breed of OTA based out of South Africa. We caught up with CEO, Odette Faling on how this new online travel startup is helping South African travellers save through dynamic packages and bundled trips.

Describe the business, core products and services in one paragraph.

Travelcheck.co.za is an online travel startup based in Cape Town, South Africa. We build technology to help travellers save time and money when planning and booking trips. What sets us apart is our dynamic packages feature, which lets people custom-create trips, saving them up to 25% in the process. In addition, we offer a bunch of useful add-on services (such as travel insurance), we have a dedicated team available 24/7 for urgent queries, and our mix and match feature for domestic and international flights allows travellers to book multiple airlines in the same ticket; another money-saver!

Who are your key customers?

Outbound travellers from Southern Africa. 

Who are your key partners?

Airlines and media companies (in South Africa).

What business are you most likely to be compared to?

Online travel agencies, although in our part of the world, we differentiate based on dynamic packages and bundled trips which is unique for an OTA in Africa. Our algorithms are unique in that they learn from previous searches and behavior on the website. The advantages of this will become clearer as we scale.

What problem are you trying to solve for your customers?

We offer South Africans variety and choice, both of which are essential for finding fairly priced travel deals in the local market. Until now, there was no local online travel agency offering dynamic packages and a platform to custom-create trips. Booking travel in a bundle creates savings opportunities for travellers.

What problem are you trying to solve for your partners?

We enable our media partners (such as Media24 and Primedia) to monetize from their digital communities.

What financial support did you have to launch the business? 

Travelcheck is a privately funded venture with local investors (South Africa).

Who validated the idea first – investors or customers?

Both. One of our investors was looking for technology to add flights and hotels to his outdoor experiences. He befriended an Israel-based tech entrepreneur who runs several online travel agencies and was looking to expand into Africa. The investors recognized the need for dynamic packages for customers to plan, book and pay online. Up until now there was no local OTA, with local support specializing in dynamic packages.

What is the revenue model and strategy for profitability?

Ancillaries (insurance, cancellation and refund) and segment fees. Negotiated fares with airlines.

What is the market opportunity? How scalable is this business? 

The market opportunity is encouraging, and we had over 50,000 visits to our website in the first two weeks of going live. We hope this is an early indication of South Africans’ need for a product like Travelcheck. Established OTAs such as Expedia (in the US) have offered dynamic packages for years and bundled (flight + hotel) bookings form a significant part of that business. The South African market is ripe for bundled booking – people already embrace online booking platforms and we’re bringing something new to this market.

Competitive analysis – strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

Strengths: Sound technology and dev team, local knowledge and established supplier relationships.

Weaknesses: Threat posed by the current economic climate in South Africa, and the uncertain costs of travel based on rand-dollar exchange.

Who are the team members and advisors? 

Travelcheck team:

• Odette Faling, CEO
• Danica Helfrich, Marketing Manager
• Caryn Parker, Customer Service

Advisors: Metcalf Corp, a South African private equity firm.

Why do you think you are the best people to make this vision happen? 

We are a small but experienced team with strong ecommerce and OTA backgrounds.

What’s the motivation behind doing this? 

We want to bring value to the market in a way that will benefit customers by offering more choices, and more affordable ways of booking travel through dynamic packages. Right now, our focus is on ensuring a smooth customer experience, and building and growing a customer base. In Travelcheck, we aim to build a reputable brand that helps people with great prices and takes the pain out of travel planning.