A Chat with Gopi from MeraTrip.com

Some time back I started interacting with V. Gopi Krishna of MeraTrip.com. Gopi is a BITS Pilani Almuni and we had the following email discussion about his website that gives Air fare hot deals at the moment but the plans are for more.

Tell us something about yourself and your interest in travel.

I am a B.E Computer Science from BITS Pilani. Worked for a couple of years in the USA with Electronic Data Systems. Currently residing at 'Oxford of the East' - Pune.

How did you start Meratrip.com?

Around October of last year I was waiting for a good airfare deal for an upcoming vacation. Every day I went to the web sites of all the airlines (Spicejet, Air Deccan, Goair etc.) and checked for any good deals.

And one fine Friday, Air Deccan published a good deal in the newspapers (not their web site) and since I don't read newspapers these days, I missed that deal and by the time I got to know it two days later, the sale tickets were sold out.

I learnt two things from this experience -- 1) There must be a single place to find out about all the deals being offered by airlines without the need to checking their individual web sites everyday 2) There must be a way to get alerted via email/sms when hot deals are announced. And so, out of this personal itch, MeraTrip.com was born.

Where do you want to take it from here?

1) Hotels and Vacations: Hotel Deals and Vacation Deals are the two other key areas that we plan to offer in the next 12 to 18 months.

2) Configurable Alerts: We will offer the capability to Configure alerts based on selected criteria. For example, you can be alerted via email/sms whenever a new deal from Mumbai to Delhi is available.

3) The power of a crowd: We will add Forums in the near future. Each deal that we publish can be discussed on the forum.

How have been the journey this far?

We were a bit skeptical about how customers would react to the value proposition of MeraTrip.com. I must say that the initial response we got has been beyond our expectations. This has cemented our belief that MeraTrip.com offers something customers actually want and can benefit from. At the end of the day, if MeraTrip.com can save time, money for our customer's, we consider our job done.

What places are on your 'must see list?'

Ladakh, Auli, Kerala Backwaters, Vaishno Devi, Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary.

Anything else you would like to share with us?

Air travel is going to get better and cheaper in India in the coming years. Timing is everything when you buy your air tickets -- The person sitting besides you in the plane could have paid Rs.5000 for his ticket and while you got your's for Rs.2000. -- Hard to believe, but that's the reality.

MeraTrip.com makes it easier for a customer to stay on top of all the deals being offered out there:

- Visit MeraTrip.com to look at current deals.

- Let us know how we are doing -- Please give us Feedback.

- Be the first to know about hot deals! -- Subscribe to our FREE Travel Deals E-Mail Letter.