Treebo today announced that the events and
activities booking platform operated by it under the banner ‘EventsHigh’ has
turned profitable at an EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest Tax Depreciation &
Amortization) level and has consistently been delivering profits for the last 5
months. EventsHigh is a marketplace where organisers of local activities and
events like concerts, treks, city walks, cooking classes, dance classes, etc.
can post their respective activities and get online bookings for the same from
customers looking to participate in these activities. Treebo had acquired
EventsHigh in 2018.
Commenting on the development, Sidharth Gupta,
co-founder of Treebo, said “We had acquired EventsHigh with the intention of
strengthening our positioning as the most loved travel brand. While our hotels
offer accommodation to travelers, EventsHigh offers a platform to book their
local activities and sightseeing. By becoming profitable this business is now
leading the charge on the profitability agenda we are driving across the
organisation. The platform adds tremendous value to both organizers and
customers and is able to take its fair share in terms of commission from the
former. This combined with a disciplined cost reduction effort over the last
one year has allowed the business to break even”
Events High platform has 25000+ organizers,
1 million+ monthly users, and 3000+ unique
events live at any point in time. It offers a unique self-serve mobile app to
the organisers that allow them to create and manage their events end-to-end
online. The company takes a commission from the organisers for the business it
generates for them and also monetises the ad space on its platform which the
organisers can book to provide additional visibility to their events.
“Globally, the events and activities space is
touted to be the next big opportunity for online booking platforms after
hotels. It has similar characteristics - large, unorganised supply, poor
penetration of technology, remote user, etc. which make it ripe for disruption.
If a customer in Delhi wants to go for a trek on the outskirts of Bangalore
during her visit to the city, booking this activity would be extremely hard
without a platform like EventsHigh. Of course, for local customers looking for
their weekend concert tickets also such a platform is valuable. That’s where
the opportunity for this business lies”, Gupta added.
Global travel booking companies like Airbnb,
Booking.com, TripAdvisor have all expressed strong interest in this business.
Booking.com acquired activities booking platform for organisers, Fareharbour,
in 2018. Airbnb launched Airbnb Experiences around the same
time. In 2019, two platforms, Klook and GetYourGuide, raised
nearly $700M between them from SoftBank for a major push in
the activities and experiences booking business in Asia and Europe
respectively. In India, BookMyShow and
PayTM have been aggressive in the movie ticketing space and are trying to tap
into the non-movie entertainment business as well.BookMyShow has said that it aims to raise the share of
non-movie revenue to 50% this year.
About Treebo
Treebo is a leading travel accommodation player
offering quality accommodation in the Rs 1,000-4,000 price
range. It has a network of 600+ hotels across 100+ cities
in India. Founded by Sidharth Gupta, Rahul Chaudhary, and Kadam Jeet Jain in 2015,
the company uses a technology-enabled ‘manachised’ model to work with owners of
existing hotel assets. Hotel owners need to abide by Treebo’s standard
operating procedures and maintains quality as desired by the brand, whereas the
company takes responsibility for sales and marketing of the property. The brand
is the highest rated hotel brand in the budget segment with online customer
rating of 7.8/10. Matrix Partners and SAIF Partners, Bertelsmann
India, WardFerry, KarstPeak are investors in the company. The company acquired
Njuta Technologies Pvt. Ltd., which does business under the name “EventsHigh”
in Apr’18.
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