Treebo seeks to serve unmet need in budget travel space

Bengaluru-based Treebo is serving a huge unmet need in the budget travel space — reliable and affordable accommodation.

With its differentiated partnership model and unwavering focus on delivering a superior customer experience, Treebo Group of Hotels, the technology-enabled chain of budget hotels, has raised Rs 112 crore in its Series B funding round led by Bertelsmann India Investments. The round also saw participation of existing investors.   

Founded in 2015 by ex-McKinsey/Myntra colleagues Sidharth Gupta and Rahul Chaudhary, and their collegemate from IIT Roorkee, Kadam Jeet Jain, the startup raised its Series A investment of Rs 38 crore last year, from Matrix Partners and SAIF Partners.
In less than a year the company has made its presence in 25 cities across the country, with 125 hotels in its network, making it the largest hotel chain in the sub 4-star category.

The company plans to use the fresh round of funds for furthering its expansion, strengthening its marketing outreach, and reinforcing its technology leadership in the sector.  Explaining the utilisation of funds, Sidharth Gupta, co-founder, Treebo, said “Treebo now plans to expand its footprint to more than 60 cities, and quadruple its current inventory from 3,000 to 12,000 keys across 450 properties in the next 12 months. These cities will include a mix of business and leisure destinations.”

He further said, “The company also plans to launch new brand extensions along the way, including a mid-scale brand and a leisure brand, while maintaining its core proposition of value-for-money across all these brands. Besides the company will be adding 300 people to its existing strength of 280 in the next 12 months.”

It offers guaranteed-quality accommodation to travellers in Rs 1,000-3,000 price range. Its properties come with all essential amenities like clean linen, free Wi-Fi, complimentary breakfast, branded toiletries, and complimentary beverages, among others. On the hotel side, it helps its partner properties drive high occupancies by improving their service standards, and by bringing them under the Treebo brand.

Treebo has been at the forefront of innovations in the hospitality space. Recently, it launched an app, called ‘Bumblebee’, to help hotels manage their day-to-day operations.  Earlier this year, the company has launched a unique, crowdsourced mystery audit programme called ‘Friends of Treebo’ wherein registered members of this community stay at Treebo properties as its unannounced representatives, and give feedback to the company on their experience to enable quick corrective actions where required.

Explaining the business model, he said, “We pioneered the tech-enabled franchise model in the budget hotels space in India. We believe partner success is closely linked to guest experience. We have therefore built deep relationships with hotel owners by partnering with them for their full inventory, and not just a few rooms. We invest heavily in technology, analytics, quality control, and staff training to help our hotel partners. It is important for us that each and every one of our partner does well, and not just a few of them. This, we believe, is the key to ensuring a consistent, high-quality experience at all our properties.”