[App Fridays] How HolidayIQ is helping travellers plan their dream vacations on the go

Planning a holiday is no easy task. We need to make sure we have all the information about our destination of choice, figure out our accommodation plans and also about what we wish to spend our time doing once we get there. HolidayIQ, a well know name in the travel and tourism industry, recently came out with an app to help users on the go with this pain point.

What is it about?

HolidayIQ is an information portal powered by the thriving community of Indian travellers and experts. The app aims to enable travellers to discover, plan holidays and share their holiday experiences.

HolidayIQ.com provides users with highly customised, rich information and insights on places, hotels, sightseeing destinations, activities and transport made uniquely relevant to the user through what they like to call ‘the Science of Holidays.’

 Features include:

-The app has one of the largest (and most comprehensive) coverage of about 50,000 Indian hotels, resorts, home-stays, jungle camps, service apartments and 2000 Indian tourism destinations across every state of India.

- A map based hotel search option where in addition to directions and cost, users can also see average user ratings of hotels.

- Bookability of all of the hotels - online bookability with option to compare prices from 100+ vendors and ‘click to call’ option connecting travellers with all 50,000 hotels directly.

- Travellers can share their holiday reviews through text, images and videos on the go.

- Content tailored to the needs of the wide range of Indian travellers, leverages more than one million Indian travel opinions.

The team behind it

The team behind HolidayIQ comprises of travellers from every spectrum; from jet setters to heritage seekers to beach bums, the team is made of sharp, young minds keen to innovate and make life easy for the ones bitten by the travel bug. The mobile product has been built by passionate travellers who love technology and innovation.

The team is lead by Manish Singh, Vice President, Product at HolidayIQ, whose specialization includes Consumer Internet products, Product Management, User Experience Design, Usability, Interaction Design & Business Platform evolution. He is supported by Thejasvi, Charan, Ankita, Gyani and Anup, who built the mobile platform and native app, and Jibran, who worked on the performance.

HolidayIQ also recently won the Red Herring award for innovation & market disruption too.

Hari Nair, Founder & CEO of HolidayIQ.com

Having created India's first travel community, Hari Nair challenged the way tourism industry operated and brought the voice of the Indian traveller at the center of Indian tourism, defining its implications on economic policy, foreign trade and technology. Today, Hari is a sought-after speaker in the Indian Tourism, Internet & Entrepreneurship forums such as TiE Delhi, IAMAI Travel & Tourism Summit Delhi, India Internet Day, CMS Asia, GliterARTi Delhi, Construkt Festival Bangalore, Echelon Singapore, Afaqs Brand Summit, Dainik Bhaskar UNmetro, TiEcon, GMIC and more.

Before embarking on his entrepreneurial venture, Hari was a partner with KPMG India and was involved in an advisory capacity in many landmark infrastructure projects in India, including the Dabhol Power project, privatization of the power supply in New Delhi, and privatization of the four metro airports. Before that he focused on conceiving and implementing new projects for investors with Feedback Ventures where he picked up a ring-side view of the managerial aspects of running a startup company and managing growth.

Pros and Cons

The app has sleek and engaging design with beautiful UI and UX. The attention to detail is apparent, users are provided with ranks for various hotels based on location, filters to check out prices, actual written and photo reviews by users which provide an engaging experience.

Adding some additional features such as a 'Wish List' or ability to save favourite locations would be an added bonus. Also while testing out the app I had signed in through my Facebook account, so I was hoping to see a separate feed about what my friends had done on the platform and the reviews they had written.

YS Verdict

Considering all parameters, this is by far one of the best travel and tourism apps currently in the market with user generated content. A must try app for travel junkies and casual travellers alike.

The app has 4+ ratings on both the Google Play store and iTunes.

Do try out the app and let us know what you think. You can download the app here for iOS and Android.

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