Travel planner TripHobo partners with Zomato; 2nd tie-up in less than a month

TripHobo, Pune-based do-it-yourself travel planning  portal, has announced its second partnership in less than a month with Zomato’s restaurant search and discovery app,  z omato.com. The company partnered with travel search engine Skyscanner in June. That partnership allows its users to compare prices of flights, car rentals and hotels while planning their trips on Triphobo’s platform. The partnership with Zomato will allow TripHobo users to access and utilise the extensive database of restaurants on Zomato.com’s network worldwide. [caption id=“attachment_2325252” align=“alignleft” width=“380” class=" “]  Logo[/caption] Speaking on the announcement, Karthik Ramachandra, COO and Cofounder TripHobo said, “The collaboration not only offers TripHobo users content and deals on restaurants but also specialized recommendations based on their itinerary. For instance, if a person is planning to visit the British Museum in the morning, followed by the Buckingham Palace in the afternoon, TripHobo will now offer suggestions on unique places to eat along the route. Going forward, we will be exploring deeper integration in other areas,” he added. The portal, which received a $3 million funding in March, has a three-pronged strategy, says Saket Newaskar, Founder and CTO. “We plan to market ourselves and educate people about our product in India and other georgraphies, too.” The company is planning to go in for a larger round of funding in a year’s time, Newaskar said. It has content for 500 cities listed on its portal and plans to add 3,000 cities with details on accommodation, travel – flight, train listings, food, places of interest, etc. Besides it plans to list 20,000 additional listing with relatively thin content. “We plan to finish this in a 15-month period,” says Newaskar. “Triphobo has put in a lot of technology on the platform. We are  trying to get users to use algorithms – maps, etc to plan trips for themselves, groups, use other travellers plans as reference, etc. The travel space is very fragmented be it in India or the world. This space takes a long time to take off,” he said. Satyajeet Singh, VP Products & Marketing, Zomato said, “Through this partnership, we’re making Zomato’s  content easily accessible and restaurant discovery incredibly easy for travellers using Triphobo. We’re constantly looking for ways to enrich dining experiences, and helping people discover good food as a part of their travel plans is a step further in that direction.”