Travala.com Quarterly Business Update: Q1 2023

Pioneering in the Macroeconomic Storm

From the CEO’s Desk

Innovation has always been at the core of everything we do at Travala.com. In the last quarter, we’ve been working hard to introduce new developments that enhance the travel experience and increase retention through blockchain technology.

Our overarching focus of growing our booking numbers across hotels, flights, and activities has also fared well despite several shockwaves rippling through the industry this year, most notably prominent crypto-friendly banks collapsing and stablecoins being briefly depegged as a result.

In our ongoing efforts to share more of our progress and what’s going on behind the scenes with our community, we’re bringing back quarterly updates in a refined format. These Quarterly Business Updates will detail the progress in key areas of the business at the conclusion of each quarter, while the Monthly Reports will focus on sharing our key statistics and figures from the previous month.

With that said, let’s recap our key achievements in the last quarter and take a look at what’s ahead.

One of the most highly anticipated product launches went live a couple of weeks ago as an early access release to our Smart Diamond members: the Open Passport. Developed by Dtravel and launched in collaboration with Travala.com, the Open Passport enables you to relive your trips by redeeming digital NFT stamps for every completed flight, stay and activity booking.

Our Concierge service was also announced as a Four Seasons Preferred Partner, which grants exclusive benefits at prestigious Four Seasons properties when booking via our Concierge travel advisors. This makes Travala.com the first crypto-friendly Four Seasons Preferred Partner, showcasing our continued efforts to ensure that crypto travellers around the world have access to a premium level of service.

Last but certainly not least, an update on the rebrand project. In the last few weeks, we wrapped up the design component that we’ve been working on with the branding agency for the past several months. We’ll now start to code these designs across the entire website and mobile apps, which is an enormous task that will take significant time. We can’t wait for you to see the completed website, but in the meantime, keep an eye out for some teasers.

2023 is shaping up to be a pivotal year for the industry. We’re confident that the work we’re putting in across all areas of the company will see us in a fantastic position to service more crypto travellers than ever before.

We expect that 2023 will present further industry-wide challenges stemming from global macro factors. As always, we’ll face these head on, continue building and come out stronger on the other side.

Juan Otero, Chief Executive Officer

Bookings & Revenue Update

We’ve seen a positive upturn as the crypto market rallied, with total month-on-month revenue steadily increasing from January to March. March was our best month of the quarter in terms of revenue, accounting for 39.72% of the total Q1 revenue. Hotels continue to be our best-performing vertical, making up just over 60% of our booking revenue in Q1.

Q1 2023 Summary:

January revenue: $3,457,702
February revenue: $4,180,478
March revenue: $5,032,276
Total Q1 revenue: $12,670,456

Revenue and bookings by vertical:
- Hotels: $7,706,754 (21,450 room nights; 60.82%)
- Flights: $4,909,197 (9,664 flights; 38.75%)
- Activities: $54,505 (263 activities; 0.43%)

Total AVA givebacks: 291,008.49 AVA (approx. US$198,782)

Matthew Stevens, Chief Financial Officer

Travel Tiger Club Update

Travel Drop

Congratulations to our Travel Tiger Club member #885 on winning the Seychelles Luxury Retreat in our latest travel drop!

The prize—which is attached to the NFT and can be traded on the secondary market—includes:

Flights for 2 adults and 7 Nights in an Ocean-View Pool Villa on a double occupancy at Four Seasons Resort Seychelles at Desroches Island
Scheduled return flights from Mahe to Desroches island (35 minutes one way)
Half board with dine around option
Sunrise Yoga session for two once during the day
Private stargazing experience on the runway
Beach picnic once during the stay
Adoption of a giant Aldabra tortoise for one year

To stand a chance at winning future exclusive travel drops, join the Travel Tiger Club by collecting Travel Tiger NFTs on OpenSea. The more you own, the greater your chances of winning!

Ambassador Bonus Marketing Tasks

The Ambassador Bonus Marketing Tasks for Smart Diamond members are live from 4th–18th April! To receive your Ambassador Bonus, complete the Essential Tasks. Compete for additional rewards by earning points for completing extra Marketing Tasks.

Smart Diamond Benefits

Have you just upgraded to the Smart Diamond membership? Keep an eye out in your inbox within the next month on how to claim your 4 free Priority Pass airport lounge passes!
[NEW] Mint your FREE Open Passport now! MINT HERE

Product Update

It’s been a busy first quarter for the product team, with many improvements made predominantly to the hotel and flight booking experience. After months of work, we rounded off the quarter with the Open Passport integration with Dtravel—one of the most highly anticipated products on our roadmap.

What’s New:

Open Passport integration across all flights, hotels and activities
Introduced SPECIAL DEALS for hotels
Introduced Promo Credits to differentiate from Travel Credits
Optimised the cryptocurrency checkout process
Created over 100,000 new pages to improve SEO and ranking
Flight improvements, including:
- Previous search details are now saved
- Refined return flight details for MiniApp
- Free baggage now selected by default on all devices
Hotel improvements, including:
- Significantly better hotel search ranking algorithm
- Upgraded hotel search form auto suggestions

Coming Up:

Major integration with global company
Optimise flights search results for faster loading
See on average 20% more accommodations when searching by city
Ongoing SEO improvements to improve search engine ranking and visibility

Subhanshu Saxena, Chief Product Officer

Marketing & Community Update

We’re continuing to increase our marketing and advertising efforts to drive brand awareness, user growth and bookings. One of our core focuses is on expanding our advertising initiatives, both as a standalone undertaking and in partnership with leading crypto and hospitality brands.

What’s New:

Launched a NEW Discord server for ALL Travala.com community members as part of our Discord strategy. JOIN HERE
New Affiliate Partner Program, with up to 5.5% commission now available on hotels, flights and activities. Sign up for FREE
Launched incentive campaign with Binance Australia with $1,000 Travel Credit giveaway
Started a regular Hotel Spotlight email to promote deals
New Facebook and Google Ads campaigns
Announced our Concierge service as a Four Seasons Preferred Partner
Launched incentive campaign with Binance New Zealand with $3,000 Travel Credit giveaway
New social media engagement posts, with a focus on education and trivia

Watch the Binance Australia AMA recap here

Coming Up:

Redesigned email offers, with upcoming ‘Exclusive Deals’
New paid ad campaigns on Facebook and Twitter
Concierge marketing campaign on Twitter
Global advertising campaigns with destination and hotel partners
Rebrand project and rollout of redesigned website, logo and brand story

Sam Woollard, Chief Marketing Officer

Partnerships Update

Over the last few months, we’ve been working on initiatives with partners that add value to the wider crypto community and attract new users. We’ve also been collaborating with high-profile hospitality partners to increase the value of our luxury concierge offering.

What’s New:

Launched the Free Smart Benefits initiative, with BSC News NFT as the first partner NFT
Announced as the Official Travel Partner of TOKEN2049 Singapore
Listed TUSD (TRC-20) as a payment option. Book travel with TUSD
Listed JASMY as a payment option. Book travel with JASMY
Launched an incentive campaign with Tron Foundation

Coming Up:

Concierge customers will soon be able to receive Marriott Bonvoy points on bookings over US$1,000. More news to follow
Sign-up incentive campaigns with more crypto partners
Concierge: receive exclusive benefits via partnership with leading hotel brand
New token listings

Shane Sibley, Head of Business Development

What’s Next

Thank you for reading our Q1 2023 Quarterly Business Update. Keep an eye out for another major integration in the next quarter, a big advertising campaign, and the next travel drop for Smart Diamond members.

If you have any questions or feedback, please reach out to us on the official Travala.com Telegram channel or Discord server.

About Travala.com

Founded in 2017, Travala.com is the leading cryptocurrency-friendly travel booking service with 2,200,000+ properties in 230 countries, 400,000+ activities, and 600+ airlines globally. Travala.com is a champion of cryptocurrency adoption, accepting over 90 leading cryptocurrencies alongside traditional payment methods. In addition to unbeatable prices via its Best Price Guarantee, Smart members on Travala.com can also enjoy additional discounts and loyalty rewards for eligible bookings made on the platform. For more information about Travala.com, visit: www.travala.com.

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