TVRL emerges from beta to turn every booker into a travel agent

Peer-to-peer travel booking website offers all travellers the chance to earn agent commission when booking their trips and recommending options to friends and family Continue reading →

A new peer-to-peer travel booking website is offering all travellers the chance to earn agent commission when booking their trips and recommending options to friends and family.

TVRL has emerged from a nine-month beta testing phase to launch to the general public this week.

Founder and chief executive Jochem Wijnands, who sold his, mobile publishing platform Prss to Apple in 2014, said:

“If you are doing your own bookings you are basically a travel agent which means you are entitled to the money you would normally get as a travel agent.”

TVRL has struck deals with booking.com, hotels.com and TripAdvisor to offer commission on bookings for 1.4 million properties.

Registered users log in to access a dashboard on which they can monitor their bookings and to keep track of bookings generated by their recommendations.

TRVL is intended for users to either research and book trips for themselves and the people they are traveling with, or research, recommend, and share trips with others, or set up shop and run a customisable travel booking website.

“You can earn up to 10% on every booking,” said Wijnands. “There is a lot of serious money that can be made doing this otherwise there wouldn’t be any travel agents.

Wijnands added: “We’re completely reimagining the travel agent: crowdsourced, collaborative, and trusted.

“Throw in a very attractive earning model of up to 10% per booking, and you can see how TRVL will change the way we book our trips online.

“Artificial Intelligence is great, but nothing beats a personal recommendation, from one human to another. That is still the most appreciated and most valuable travel advice there is.”

TRVL chief operating officer Arthur Hoffman said: “TRVL is breaking down the traditional barriers of the travel industry by turning everybody into a TRVL Agent and introducing an earning model.

“Today we can find all hotels online, but how do we know which one is right for us? We often end up spending many nights behind our laptop, researching a destination, and building up enough confidence to make a booking. A personalized recommendation often helps us cut right to the chase.”

TRVL says it expects to announce new partners and products in the coming months. The site receives a commission on every booking made through the platform and passes on the lion’s share of that commission to the TRVL Agent responsible for the booking.