Travelstart Kenya, an online travel agency which allows users to search, compare, book and pay for their domestic and international travel arrangements has hit three years of operations in Kenya.
Speaking to TechMoran on the milestone, Travelstart Kenya Country Manager Bryan Kariuki said, “ From June – Aug, we’ve grown 174% Year On Year and in some weeks we have seen 540% growth. We’ve seen over 100,000 users per month of people looking for flight tickets from Kenya to several destinations of their choice.”
On some of the weeks, the firm says it gets 48,000 users on the site due to the increasing demand for flights to both local and international destinations.
Bryan pegs the increase also to the growing use of internet in Kenya and especially the uptake of smartphones with Safaricom selling over 100,000 smartphones a month. Unlike three years ago when they just launched and smartphones were not as commonplace as today.
Founded in Sweden in 1999 by Stephan Ekbergh, Travelstart has operations in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya and is expanding into several other countries in Africa. The team in Kenya is moving to make Travelstart the most powerful online travel booking platform in the country as it saves users money, time and offers great customer service apart from its instant flight comparison and booking engine displaying fares of all major airlines and low-cost carriers in real-time.
With partnerships with existing flight operators, the online travel agency is also ramping up its inventory to help users search for flights to just anywhere in the world and at the moment has Fly540, Kenya, Emirates, Qatar Airways and SAA among others.
“We aim is to make travel accessible to everyone by making it fast, easy and affordable to find great deals on flights worldwide,” says Bryan.
The platform works simply. You visit the Travelstart website, fill out the details of your trip in the booking engine, click search and peruse through the results which show airline ticket prices from all the airlines flying to your destination or route. After comparing prices, you pick the best that suits your class and budget. You then book and pay online via your preferred choice.
Your booking will be confirmed once your payment has been processed, Travelstart Kenya will then send you an e-ticket email with or without a reference number and flight details depending on the airline. Apart from airline tickets, Travelstart Kenya also powers booking of hotels, car rentals and travel insurance.
