Teletext Holidays chairman invests in hospitality start-up

The fully online concierge service offers shopping, theatre, attractions, restaurants and destination planning tools up to 21 days in advance of check-in.

Benefits for hotels include the ability to drive more direct bookings, increase guest satisfaction and earn commission for every guest purchase on its Guide.

Travlet is in the process of introducing its solution to London’s major hotel groups, with an eye on multi-national expansion in Europe and the US for 2020.

Travlet chief executive James Harrabin, said: “We all know that many guests use their smartphones and Google to plan their visits and research things to do when they arrive in a city. However, research shows that 48% of the time guests wait too long and cannot find availability or have to pay inflated prices on resale sites to see the events or attractions they want – detracting from their city visit experience.

“With all items online bookable online via email, WhatsApp and text messaging, it’s a valuable concierge service to guests in advance of their stay, that in turn generates an average commission of 10% to hotels that use our platform.”

Steve Endacott, non-executive chairman, Teletext Holidays, said: “I have a history of starting or investing in successful B2B businesses, and I like Travlet’s business model as it avoids the need to establish a consumer brand, thus eliminating the need for expensive third-party advertising costs such as Google Ads.

“Travlet’s platform also makes intelligent use of partner and guest data to personalise results for clients, leading to a better experience and stay. Travlet provides a win-win solution for both the end customer and hotels, with minimal up-front costs and good commission levels.

“I believe it is a scalable new distribution channel, and therefore have invested together with Veridian Ventures and others to help speed up its roll-out.”