This deal brings together Travelguru’s leading consumer facing hotel booking product and sizeable hotel network with Desiya’s leading hotel aggregation platform. This powerful backward integration will drive much more value to key stakeholders including end customers, partners and hotels. This all adds up to advantages including better deals for consumers and more hotel options than ever before.

Commenting on the ground breaking transaction, Ashwin Damera, Founder & CEO, Travelguru.com said, “We have worked closely with Desiya for over 18 months and the newly combined entity of Travelguru and Desiya will only bring added value to all travelers. This company will deal with every stage of the sales cycle (from hotels all the way to the consumer) in the hospitality industry and will allow sharing of learning’s across the board. Desiya’s strong supplier relations and experience compliment Travelguru’s own substantial market reach, vast consumer base and online resources. This will facilitate our ability to capitalize on future growth opportunities within the travel industry."

Amit Taneja, Founder & CEO of Desiya added, "Travelguru’s great experience in managing consumer relationships and feeding back these learning to hotel partners, is a powerful new addition to Desiya.  We are excited to work with them to offer an even more comprehensive suite of travel services.  Given the extensive planning by Desiya and Travelguru to date, and our history of working closely together, we expect a seamless integration of operations."

Further to this, Desiya will continue to spearhead efforts to grow the company’s leading proposition to affiliate partners, including supplying hotels to a number of leading travel portals in India. It will also help hotel partners develop internet-ready inventory management tools. Finally, it will empower travel agents who wish to benefit from the wide scale and deals available from the combined hotel network. This acquisition provides scale and resources which should provide good impetus to the growth of this entire sector.

A relentless pursuit of perfection in the customer experience, through the smart use of relevant technology is what drives Travelguru, adds Damera. “The acquisition will bring the ‘best in class’ technology from hotel booking management, to customer relationship management to the user interface all under one roof.”

It looks like good times ahead for the Indian hotel customer and travellers at large.

About Travelguru
Travelguru - India’s largest hotel network - offers access to over 4000 hotels in India and over 72,000 hotels worldwide. It offers travelers the opportunity to plan and purchase their travel in a transparent, easy and customizable manner. Instant bookings and confirmations are some of the unique features of the travel portal. Strategic partnerships and deep supplier relationships give Travelguru the edge as an aggregator of travel services. Sorting hotels by user reviews and several other criteria are some of the distinctive value-added services at Travelguru. Backed by next generation real-time metasearch technology, and a reservation center of skilled, well-trained travel professionals, Travelguru facilitates a wide range of travel options and recommendations for domestic as well as international travelers. The Travelguru hotel advisors guide you to the most convenient place to stay including rates, amenities, landmarks and so on across India. It promotes properties from budget to luxury, single room to serviced apartment, business accommodation to leisure houseboat. Recently, Travelguru has been awarded the prestigious JuxtConsult Award 2007 for being the ‘Best Practice Website’ in user–friendliness. The senior management team brings significant experience from diverse fields such as hospitality, travel, e-commerce, retail and banking. With sizable investments from blue-chip investors Sequoia Capital India and Battery Ventures, Travelguru is set to redefine the way India travels. Travelguru can be found on the World Wide Web at www.travelguru.com or can be reached by calling the company’s reservation center, +91 - 22 - 4275 4878 (standard charges apply).


About Desiya
Desiya is a Gurgaon based company focused on business to business (B2B) services in the hospitality industry. It provides hotels for booking to over 100 leading travel portals and sites in India. Desiya also caters to end customers with a particular strength in inbound travel. Desiya has had particular strengths in certain domestic markets including Delhi, Mumbai, Agra, Jaipur and Goa.