The Power Of Humanity Fuelled My Start-Ups Success

Jenna Heidstrom
Jul 27, 2017 · 3 min read

The trust we have within the internet is at its all time high. We now meet people via apps, buy unwanted clothes from others, find people with certain skill sets to create our business logo’s and sometimes we can even fall in love with a swipe to the right.

Just over a year ago, Simon Powell pre-booked a holiday to Dubai with his girlfriend and then the unforeseeable happened… they broke up. Travel providers of all types put their own refund/cancellation policies on pre-booked tickets, even though some bookings are non-refundable 80% are transferable and that’s when TransferTravel.com was created.

We are all aware of recycling our unwanted clothes, food, cardboard to prevent waste, however, we haven’t been educated in the recycling of unwanted travel. Imagine spending £10billion on hotel rooms that you don’t stay in… If you look into how much money we all waste on unused travel bookings the figures are shocking, the BBC reported that in 2012 over $17 billion is wasted on pre-booked unused travel every year. Forbes also reported that an estimated 220 thousand hotel rooms a day are pre-paid and never used in the US alone despite most of them being transferrable to somebody else. It isn’t just leisure, the amount of money wasted on unwanted business travel is truly unbelievable. THE BBC squandered thousands of pounds of licence fee payers money last year on travel tickets, cabs and hotel rooms which it booked but never used. In the last financial year more than £50,000 was spent on travel for Auntie staff where the seats remained empty and almost £10,000 on hotel rooms that never saw a guest (https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/15...)

TransferTravel.com was never set up to be another travel website, instead it was formed to be a community whereby all inventory was provided by peers to be sold to peers. Sellers now have the opportunity to retain their money on tickets that would otherwise go wasted and provide opportunities to international buyers to purchase their unwanted travel plans at personalised discounts.

TT is a platform whereby the people have the power to choose how much they are looking to sell their travel tickets for, allowing buyers to purchase and negotiate within the community rather than pay the standard rates set out by providers themselves. Through our internal messaging system we are able to see the kind hearted nature of those looking to help one another through compromise and honesty.

When the decision of cost is left with the people, with no minimum or maximum limits set by a company it is heart warming to see that people really do care for others. This freedom not only puts life into the TransferTravel community but it also restores faith back into humanity and provides the fuel that will ensure the growth of the company. One mans trash really is another mans treasure and that one flight that you can no longer board could be the ticket another person needed to get to a wedding or a job interview.

The support and positive feedback that the company receives on a day-to-day basis is all down to the fact that the circumstance of an unwanted travel ticket is relatable to everybody. Even if you have never had to cancel a hotel stay or a train journey, it doesn’t mean it will never happen as we never know what each day holds. Registering to the site means that if the unforeseen does occur TransferTravel.com and our community will have your back and we will do our very best to get your ticket sold.

A true marketplace has to have the people at it’s core, we have declined many requests from 3rd party providers to fill our inventory and TransferTravel.com will only ever be a peer-to-peer platform. We want to thank our current users for putting good will, honesty and life into TransferTravel.com and the spirit of the community is lifted with each new user. Registering is free, sign up today: www.transfertravel.com — turning cancellations into opportunities and providing the only solution for unwanted travel.

“What I’m really focused on is connecting people around shared interests, so together they can make good stuff happen. I’m more focused on helping people discover their power as individuals, but through those connections with one another.” — Pierre Omidyar

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade