The co-founder of travel booking site Reservations.com, Yavin Patel, could be considered unique in the modern business world for his sincere dedication to providing excellent value and service to his customers. His travel booking website works to make the process of planning a holiday and booking accommodation as easy as possible all within one convenient framework.
Yatin was kind enough to take some time to answer a few questions about Reservations.com.
Why did you want to create Resevations.com?
My partner and I started Reservations.com after our firsthand experiences with poor-quality hotel booking systems, which seemed to all function identically. The industry definitely felt stuck in a rut because nobody could be bothered to create something sleeker, and this is where we saw our opportunity to create Reservations.com.
Basically, we witnessed a lack of humanity in the whole system, complete with laughable customer feedback systems that only existed to tick a box, rather than actually help customers. We thought, “we can do better than this”, and the rest is history.
What are some of the biggest milestones you’ve achieved so far?
From our beginnings as little more than a registered domain name, we’ve come a long way and have a lot of pride in what we have accomplished in the last 5 years. Since starting, we’ve helped facilitate more than 2.5 million bookings, and our team is rapidly growing in terms of size and capability.
In what ways do you feel your website can shape the travel market?
Because of our commitment to sincere customer service and providing great value, we believe that Reservations.com sets an example of how you can put effort into maintaining a good faith relationship with your customers and not be punished for it. Too many websites neglect their customers because they don’t think the cost/benefit of providing quality customer services is worth it – we want to prove them wrong.
What are the main points where you differ from competition?
We have worked hard to ensure we collect the best possible deals for our customers, and we believe this is what sets us apart from our key competitors. We don’t just want to be another site that chugs along, we want to be #1.
What was the #1 challenge in establishing your website?
Due to the fact we started the business with our own capital and no outside investment, it meant we could not afford to run at a loss while we built up our presence. This pressured us to make the site profitable as soon as possible meaning we had a lean system from the start rather than cutting off the fat at a later date.
Lastly, do you have any travel advice?
While hunting for the best value is always important, don’t sacrifice the experience you are looking for by going with an option that’s a lot cheaper but of poorer quality.
