HolidayIQ aims to double traffic in a year

Funds from MakeMyTrip to be used for global content, mobile tech

Hotel and holiday recommendation platform HolidayIQ is targeting to more than double its traffic in a year. In the same period, it is looking at a five-fold jump in the number of consumer reviews, founder and chief executive Hari Nair told Business Standard . Reviews and traffic at HolidayIQ, where Nasdaq-listed MakeMyTrip picked up a 28 per cent stake a day ago, help generate business for travel sites.

Like any other internet-based start-up, the company claims it does not have any profitability targets. At present, it could be operationally profit, if it was not investing further in growth of the company, according to Nair, who had earlier gone through four rounds of funding from the likes of Tiger Global and Accel Partners since its launch seven years ago.

HolidayIQ, which works on a business model similar to international holiday review site TripAdvisor, is aiming to increase the number of visitors on its site to 25 million a month from 10 million. It also wants to step up the number of reviews to 250,000 a month within a year from 50,000, Nair said. Two years ago it attracted 1,000-1,500 reviews a month and it got traffic of only three million a month in 2013. Although the company’s estimated valuation is pegged at $55 million after MakeMyTrip’s $15 million infusion, Nair refused to talk about any valuation target. ‘’Valuation could be a multiple of the growth in traffic and reviews,’’ he said.

Admitting that there’s a significant investor interest in the company, the HolidayIQ founder said, “conversations do happen, but we are not in the business of raising hundreds of millions of dollars. I’m not soliciting…’’ He said the focus of the company was neither revenue nor profits, but rather quality content.

However, HolidayIQ, like its peers in the holiday recommendation universe, gets its revenues by generating customer leads to travel sites such as MakeMyTrip, Yatra, Expedia, Cleartrip, among others. The model is based on cost per click or cost per lead.

HolidayIQ wants to remain a content company and has said it does not want to be a transaction platform. The company has also denied having any exit plans. On whether it would dilute its stake completely in future, Nair said that was unlikely ?because one is excited about the financial upside and, therefore, it makes sense to retain stake??. There?s no timeframe for an initial public offering yet, as the company is ?not thinking of unlocking the value or liquidating?.

To take the business to the next level, HolidayIQ is planning to invest the money it has raised in marketing, mobile technology and offering content for international destinations as well.