PLUS How you, too, can access an airport lounge, even if you’re not travelling Business or First Class.Illustrations by Himanshu Lakhwani

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MEET THE GAME

CHANGERS

EVENTS-SPACE INNOVATORS

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the road, p106

who are altering the way you travel, p100

Hotels in Asia that are fi nding new ways to help you do business, p112

The coolest products to pack on your next trip,

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Apr-May 2014 Condé Nast Traveller 99

HRUSH BHATT, 39Co-founder, CleartripSince it launched in 2006, with the tag line ‘Making travel simple’, Cleartrip has carved a niche for itself in the Indian online travel company (OTC) business. “We o� er users the simplest ways to book their travel,” says Bhatt (right), a Mumbai native who’s been working in the digital space for the past decade. Cleartrip compares fares across di� erent airlines, trains and hotels, and allows you to sort by price, duration and other factors. Its innovations include allowing users to make changes to their reservations online—path-breaking in the Indian OTC landscape—and a Pricewatch option monitors the fare of a ticket you’ve booked. If the cost of that ticket drops by a pre-fi xed amount, you’re refunded the di� erence. It has also developed trip-planning products called Collections (in partnership with CNT).

What’s your favourite dish to order from room service? “The ham-and-cheese sandwich; you can’t go wrong with that.“

mixers across the world; they bring together locals and visitors and you’re more likely to meet people whose company you will enjoy.If you had to nick a hotel amenity, what would it be? “The Cowshed shampoo and bath gel from any Soho House.”

RAHUL SALGIA, 42 CEO, DigiValetIf you’ve stayed at the Armani Hotel Dubai or ITC Maurya, New Delhi and used the hotel’s in-room iPad, then you’ve used Salgia’s creation. DigiValet is a hotel-logistics software with which you can stream fi lms from your personal digital device, draw curtains, order food and chat to other guests staying at the hotel. Salgia says that in his two-decade-long tenure as a business consultant, he hated being forced to hunt for light switches in hotel rooms and having to remember favourite channels on the TV sets. And so, he created DigiValet, which captures a guest’s preferences: what temperature he or she likes the room to be set to, the dishes repeatedly ordered and the newspapers read. This information can be stored in a database and accessed not only by the hotel’s sta� , but also by other properties that are part of the same group. “We believe that if the guest can be delighted, there is no reason why he or she will not return to the hotel and send more referrals,” says Salgia. So, if you frequent a hotel

THE GAME CHANGERS

DEEPINDER GOYAL, 30Founder & CEO, Zomato“Zomato was created to help people discover great places to eat around them,” says Goyal, and that’s exactly what this restaurant search service does in more than two lakh restaurants, across 40 cities, in 11 countries. Zomato’s app, available on all smartphone platforms, allows users to search for restaurants based on keywords and geo-coded maps, as well as providing information such as how expensive a restaurant is, what dishes it serves, whether you need a reservation or not, and crowdsourced reviews. You can even follow users whose opinions you trust and see where they are eating next; it’s like Facebook for foodies. Goyal, who studied maths at IIT Delhi, and co-founder, Pankaj Chaddah, plan to take Zomato to 22 new countries in the next 24 months.

What sort of vacations do you enjoy? “I think I am the laziest person on Earth, so it’d be a cruise .”

SABINE HELLER, 36CEO, ASMALLWORLD

It has been called ‘Myspace for millionaires’, and Heller

(top right), who has a background in advertising

and is editor-at-large at Vogue Italia, has turned ASMALLWORLD into an exclusive subscription-

based, members-only network. It aims to enrich

your travel experience by o� ering you high-end privileges (bespoke tours, hotel upgrades, shopping discounts) and linking you to other like-minded people in the cities you travel to. ”Indians, historically, have been amenity- and comfort-driven in their travel preferences. Adventure and exploration are relatively new concepts for them,” says Heller. ASW ambassadors host members-only

These 15 entrepreneurs prove that a great idea and a love of travel are

all you need to shake things up. By Prasad Ramamurthy

With DigiValet, you can stream fi lms from your digital device, order food and chat to other guests

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You can even follow users you trust and see where they are eating. It’s like Facebook for foodies

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chain that uses DigiValet, chances are that your wishes will not only be addressed, but also anticipated and serviced.What sort of holidays do you enjoy? “Trying new adventures challenges me. Besides mountaineering and abseiling, I love water sports and am learning to scuba-dive.”

PIYA BOSE, 31Founder, Girls on the Go ClubBitten by the travel bug in 2008, Bose (below), a corporate lawyer, switched careers to start a travel company that would only cater to women travellers. Girls on the Go Club aims to serve women who are looking to travel by themselves. “I believe in empowering women through travel,” says Bose. “I do this by getting them to experience local festivals, stay in villages, sample street food, check out the nightlife and use local transport.” All of this, she believes, helps women step out of their comfort zone, gain confi dence and immerse themselves in a brand-new culture. The

company o� ers a range of travel experiences, including party-hopping in Ibiza, cruising in the

Greek islands, culinary tours of Morocco and trekking on Ladakh’s frozen Zanskar River.

What’s your favourite pastime onboard an aeroplane? “Trashy magazines—bring on the Page 3

gossip of the world.”

CHITRA GURNANI DAGA, 30CEO, ThrillophiliaDaga, who has a degree from the Indian School of Business (ISB)and has worked for companies such as Infosys, co-founded Thrillophilia in 2008, along with her engineer husband Abhishek. The idea was to create a platform for independent travellers and corporates to book experiences in the places they were visiting—scuba-diving in Lakshadweep, yoga in Himachal Pradesh or skydiving in Tamil Nadu. Currently, they o� er more than

1,400 such experiences in India and aim to add a further 5,000 by October 2014. Justifying her aggressive plans for expansion, Daga says, “Our team travels to each destination and personally conducts 100-odd checks on the quality of the local service providers before bringing the experience online.” This meticulous attention to detail has earned Thrillophilia clients such as Google, Reliance Industries and Cipla.

What sort of holidays do you enjoy?“An action-packed trip with experiential stays—such as camping on a riverbank, in the middle of a forest or on the beach—is what I prefer.”

VIKRANT CHHEDA, 32Co-founder, White Collar Hippie“We want to banish the tourist from the traveller in you,” proclaims Chheda (right), who, besides running this travel company, also advises corporates on being environmentally sustainable. “We always pick campsites or homestays as our accommodation, and all our activities have a focus on indigenous art and culture.” Therefore, White Collar Hippie’s trips avoid package-tourist magnets. For instance, its trip

to Ladakh gives what Chheda calls the ‘tourist-infested’ Pangong Tso Lake a miss. Instead, it takes you to remote villages (in Jeeps and on camel back) in the Nubra Valley. Travellers live with and experience the lives of locals, visit their organic farms and enjoy home-cooked meals. White Collar Hippie’s Great Karnataka Journey is a 10-day trip that takes you on a photography tour of Hampi, fl ora and fauna sighting in Anshi National Park and surfi ng in Manipal. Chheda says, as a rule, the company never shares a list of things to do or specifi c times to do them, allowing a group of travellers to spend more time in a place or on a specifi c activity that they fi nd particularly interesting.

What’s your favourite pastime onboard an aeroplane?“Being on a plane defi nitely means uninterrupted reading time—so trashy magazines for the starter and a novel for the main course.”

MICHAEL PARGAL LYNGDOH, 28Co-founder, TripotoWe all hear travel stories that inspire us and often wish someone would break it down into manageable itineraries. Tripoto, started by Lyngdoh and his partner Anirudh Gupta, both ISB graduates, fulfi ls precisely that desire. It creates an ecosystem where travellers and those wanting to travel can benefi t from each other. The New Delhi-based site sources experiences and itineraries from its users, runs them through a stringent vetting process and presents them in easy-to-do formats—from city tours and wildlife safaris to backpacking trips and weekend getaways. “You can search based on your personality type, the duration of your trip or the cost,” says Lyngdoh. And,

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Tripoto sources travel itineraries from users and presents them in easy-to-do formats

Thrillophilia’s o� erings include scuba-diving in Lakshadweep and yoga in Himachal

Apr-May 2014 Condé Nast Traveller 101

(Indo-Canadian Transport; www.indocanadiantransport.com). Causing this revolution is Chhabria, who has been redesigning and souping up automobiles for two decades now. He predicts that, within the next 10 years, these bus facilities will have become the norm, adding, “These vehicles will be used in areas where there is demand for luxury services, such as on the Mumbai-Vapi route, but where travelling by air isn’t feasible. I already have an order to supply 120 such buses this year.”What sort of vacations do you enjoy? “Spa vacations because of the sheer sensory pleasure they provide.”

GAUTUM SHEWAKRAMANI, 31Founder & CEO, AudioCompassEver visited a monument and wished there was someone knowledgeable enough to show you around (or found that the literature provided just wasn’t up to the mark)? AudioCompass creates apps, downloadable on iPhone and Android devices, that turn your phones and tablets into personal guides to sites such as the Taj Mahal in Agra, Nizamuddin Dargah in Delhi, the temples of Khajuraho in Madhya Pradesh and Mani Bhavan in Mumbai. “I believe that at its most fundamental level, travel is about absorbing the stories of the destinations we set

foot in,” says Shewakramani (left), who has an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management and is invested in start-ups

such as India-based Hotelogix, a hotel IT solutions provider, and

US-based advertising content creator, Tra� o. “We want our user to feel a sense of freedom as he experiences a destination,” he adds. Therefore, besides audio guides to heritage monuments, AudioCompass has also created apps covering historic precincts, such as Mumbai’s Fort area and the Golden Temple in Amritsar.

if you are inspired by an itinerary, you can book it (earning its creator discounts on future trips), and fi nd a local in that destination to suggest insider tips. Tripoto members, certifi ed as Expert Travellers by the site, can advertise to o� er their services as guides, or have others join them on trips they are undertaking and get paid for it. These elements move Tripoto beyond just being a travel-planning site to one that creates, as Lyngdoh puts it, ‘a thriving ecosystem, wherein people can make a living out of travel’.

If you had to nick a hotel amenity, what would it be?“A shaving kit! I always forget to pack one. Most hotels provide you with disposable ones and they do the job.”

SAURABH JAIN, 29Co-founder, PadhaaroThis site’s USP is to help travellers see a destination through the eyes of a friendly local, who can recommend great experiences and warn against sites that aren’t worth visiting. Jain, who has a background in consulting (with companies such as Deloitte), says he and his co-founder, Ish Jindal (23), stumbled upon the idea for the service at a conference in Moscow, in 2011. With few English speakers around, they found the assistance of a Russian conference fellow invaluable when they were exploring the city. Padhaaro hooks visitors up with a ‘Greeter’, who, for a fee, is willing to guide them around the city. “For example, one of our Greeters in Jaisalmer is the great-grandson of a former prime minister of the kingdom of Jaisalmer. He shows our guests around and then o� ers them lunch at his haveli,” says Jain. When quizzed on safety issues, Jain insists that all the company’s Greeters are subjected to multiple interviews and background checks before they are signed on, and that women travellers are normally allocated female Greeters.

What sort of holidays do you enjoy?“Cruises. I’ve been on a few short ones that have left me craving more.”

DINESH SRIRAM, 41CEO, Bharat TravelsFor a 67-year-old tour company,

Bharat Travels is still quite the spring chicken when it comes to groundbreaking itineraries. Its Indology tours—led by art curators, archaeologists and mythologists—cater to a niche audience of culture vultures. The 15-day Roman Trail, for instance, examines globalisation in the ancient world, by tracing the route Roman traders, visitors and diplomats took from the ancient port of Muziris, close to Kochi, to Arikamedu, near Puducherry. Another 14-day

itinerary reveals the contribution of the Tamil-Chola dynasty to art, architecture and culture across India, Sri Lanka, Cambodia and Thailand—nations once ruled from southern India. “Knowledge about India and the ability to disseminate it with the right balance of context and relevance have given us enormous success stories,” says Sriram, whose clients include museum directors from New York and companies such as General Electric and Rolls-Royce.

What’s your favourite pastime onboard an aeroplane? “I make it a point to only watch fi lms about the destination I’m fl ying to. It prepares me for and sensitises me to the culture and society’s popular mindset.”

DILIP CHHABRIA, 59Founder, DC DesignComplimentary wi-fi , 21-inch touch-screen personal entertainment systems with more than 5,000 movies and satellite TV, 24-inch-wide reclining seats, USB ports, charging points and stewardesses to serve meals on-call... No, we’re not describing an airline’s Business Class o� erings. These are just some of the facilities you can expect to fi nd if you’re booking a bus service between cities such as Mumbai and Rajkot (Eagle Travels; www.eaglecorporate.com) or New Delhi and Jalandhar

Chhabria’s buses come with free wi-fi , USB ports, 21-inch TVs and more than 5,000 fi lms

Bharat Travels’ Indology tours are led by archaeologists and mythologists

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JAMBU PALANIAPPAN, 28Head, EMEA + India Expansion, UberFunded by search-engine colossus Google, Uber is a luxury car-sourcing service that was founded in San Francisco, in 2010. It’s now present in almost 70 countries across six continents, including India (Bengaluru, Hyderabad and New Delhi). Uber uses a smartphone app to connect customers to the drivers closest to them. When you book a vehicle—an Audi, Mercedes-Benz E-Class or BMW category 3 automobile—you’ll know just how long the driver will take to

reach you. It’s even possible to track the vehicle’s progress while it’s on its way to pick you up. The company o� ers premium-quality vehicles at a price that’s marginally higher than your standard city radio-taxi service. With Uber’s ‘Fare Quote’ option, a potential user can calculate the cost of a trip. For instance, a journey from the Greater Kailash 1 area to Chanakyapuri, in New Delhi, is estimated to be between 350 and

450—not a lot of money when you have a chau� eur-driven luxury car on call and can arrive unru� ed by urban chaos. Palaniappan (left), Uber’s rising star, joined the company in 2012 to

launch its Dallas operations. He attributes its quick growth in this

country to Indians who have tried the service overseas. “The ability for those users to have the same Uber experience at home is compelling,” he says.

Your preferred dishon the room-service menu? “Without a doubt, butter chicken and garlic naan. Recently, I ordered the

dish at The Oberoi in Dubai and it was exactly

what I needed aftera long fl ight.”

If you had to nick a hotel amenity, what would it be? “Shower gel. They come to the rescue when I’m roughing it. During my most recent trip to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, I stayed in a non-AC tent on the beach, and the two bottles of shower gel that I’d taken from the Mandarin Oriental were a godsend.”

JAYANTI RAJAGOPALAN, 42Founder, Detours IndiaFood is one of the big reasons we travel and, in 2008, after 13 years of working in marketing and sales, Rajagopalan decided to lay out a bu� et of o� erings centred around her native city Hyderabad. The Biryani Detour, for instance, winds its way through the city’s many biryani hubs and explores this Hyderabadi staple in all its variations. Her menu has expanded to include cultural trips as well, such

as the Necropolis Detour, which takes you to visit tombs of the Nizams, their saints and courtesans. “Our e� ort was to give the guest an introduction to the city like a local friend or relative would,” says Rajagopalan, who is in the process of launching her signature experiences in other cities. In Chennai, these are centred around the impact of the British Raj on the city and include tours focusing on local cuisine. Another journey takes you on an 11-day, four-city tour of India. “It places emphasis on the history of Indian food and will appeal to the adventurous foodie,” reveals Rajagopalan.

Your preferred dish on the room-service menu? “I always speak to the chef and ask for comfort food. In India, I often ask if anyone from Bengal, Bihar or Orissa works in the kitchens, and ask him or her to make me khichdi and aloo chokha.”

PUSHPINDER SINGH, 40CEO, TravelkhanaEver found yourself on an Indian Railways long-distance train, wishing you could order a freshly prepared hot meal from a city or town on your route ahead? If the answer is yes, this service is just what you’ve been waiting for. Travelkhana partners with restaurants in more than 120 towns and cities—as geographically diverse as Bokaro, Coimbatore, Ludhiana, Tirupati and Valsad—and delivers dishes to passengers travelling on 2,000-plus trains. Meals can be booked on Travelkhana’s website, its mobile app, over the phone or by sending an SMS. Choose the destination you want your meal delivered in, browse through menus of local restaurants, pick your dishes and order. As Singh, who has worked with companies such as Quark and ARI Labs, says, “Our [digital] platform tracks the train’s running information to ensure meal delivery at the right time and to the right seat.”What’s your favourite pastime onboard an aeroplane?“I’m a big movie bu� , so I would watch a new hit fi lm.”

The Necropolis Detour takes youto the tombs of the Nizams, while the Biryani Detour explores the dish in all its variations

Uber uses an app to connect its customers to the drivers closest to them

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Apr-May 2014 Condé Nast Traveller 105