Ex Skype and Yahoo! seniors joined forces to set-up a revolutionary social stay marketplace

Finding affordable and unique accommodations in Asia-Pac just got easier at tavelmob.

travelmob which just started operation this year bills itself as a leading social stay marketplace where people can find, offer and book unique accommodation in Asia Pacific.

Founded jointly by Turochas Fuad, ex Managing Director of Skype Asia Pacific and Prashant Kirtane, formerly Senior Director of Engineering at Yahoo! Inc, the company was started with a vision to enable travellers around the world to experience Asia Pacific like a local.

"Globally, Asia Pacific is one of the fastest growing regions for tourism, recently overtaking the US in terms of top destinations for tourism. According to the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA), international arrivals into the region grew by 10% year-on-year in March 2012, led by Southeast Asia, which saw a strong 15% increase in visitor numbers compared to March 2011," said Eunice Lim, travelmob head of Marketing & Communications.

With low cost carriers on the rise and travel becoming more accessible to all, Lim noted that there is an opportunity to offer travellers seeking alternative accommodations – quality and affordable options where they can experience local living and hospitality in the region.

"Our goal at travelmob is to be the leading social stay marketplace in Asia Pacific where people can find, offer and book unique places when visiting this part of the world," added Lim.

How it works

Lim said that travelmob provides a secure platform for property owners in Asia Pacific to list as many properties as they like for free - travelmob only collects a service fee when an actual booking is made.

The site facilitates the entire booking process by offering a secure payments system as well as private messaging platform for Guests (travellers) and Hosts (property owners) to contact each other.

"We handle the financial transaction to ensure secure, timely payments and hosts are paid 24 hours after a guest checks in for added security," she said.

Understanding that travellers generally trust recommendations from friends and other travellers, Lim said that travelmob has also built a transparent review system where Guests and Hosts can share their feedback on one another for a recent stay.

In addition, the site integrates with popular social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Pinterest, allowing users to share their experiences with their network and view which of their friends are fans of travelmob too.

Besides its unique business model, travelmob also stands out in its focus to build a leading social stays marketplace in Asia Pacific by maintaining a dedication to tackling hard-to- solve problems in the region like payments and localisation.

Unique features of the sitei nclude:  Localized payment options with support for 13 global currencies, 10 of which are key Asian currencies;  Localized language support in 5 Asian languages: Bahasa Indonesia, Vietnamese, Thai and Traditional and Simplified Chinese; local customer care in selected languages such as Chinese, Malay and Bahasa Indonesia; Create Discount feature for Hosts to offer special discounts during off peak season; and conduct special promotions for Guests; New “Experience Tags” feature which enable Guests to personalise their search and quickly shortlist relevant accommodations that offer the type of travel experience they want.

The Singapore-based company recently announced it has raised US$1 million in seed funding, led by Jungle Ventures with participation from other prominent, private investors in the region.