You know, I’ve never actually ever dealt with a real life travel agent before. In fact, come to think of it, I’ve never even stepped into a travel agency’s offices before. With software development being my daily bread and butter, I’ve always been quite content dealing with online systems as opposed to people, and as such when it comes to travel arrangements I’ve always been more than happy to use an OTA (a.k.a online travel agency, an abbreviation I have literally just learned a handful of minutes ago) for my needs.
Anyway, when it comes to South Africa, one of the biggest and most prominent players in this space is undoubtedly Travelstart (who now seem be on a massive marketing push to get their name out even further than what it already is – as evidenced by this here partner post of mine too I guess).
Interesting fact, Travelstart is headquartered right here in Cape Town, and so is technically a South African company, despite having first been breathed into life by Swedish founder Stephan Ekbergh back in 1999 – who then sold it off to investors, before finally buying it back again following his emigration to South Africa in 2006. And quite frankly, the company hasn’t looked back since. A leading OTA in Africa and the Middle East, Travelstart now finds itself operating in some 15 markets across the region, including the likes of Botswana, Kenya, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.
Primarily making money through Pay per Click advertising and an extensive affiliate network of travel partners, TravelStart brings tons of value to the everyday traveller (i.e. you and me) by offering some of the best travel deals across all its comparison functions – those being the full trifecta of flights, hotels, and car rentals.
So literally a one-stop compare and book shop (and that’s not even noting the toes now dipped into the Business Travel and Package Holiday markets either).
Plus, it is hard for me not to like how they do what they do. Extremely technologically focused (i.e. they seem to be rather fond of us programmers in general), the Travelstart website is clean, responsive, well written, and frankly a pleasure to use. (And with local customer support for when needed, it feels like a bit of a no-brainer if you are looking for the easiest way to book your next holiday.)
Right, so basically Travelstart IS a good way to start your travels then.
Related Link: Travelstart