Now you can sell your unwanted holiday on ‘Transfer Travel’

If you can’t go on a holiday any longer, now you have the chance to sell it to someone who can via Transfer Travel, which is some sort of an eBay for holidays.

Once upon a time, there was a man who got stuck with a luxury holiday to Dubai that he did not want. He was supposed to travel with his partner, but, unfortunately, the two split up right before getting ready for the holiday, let alone that it was worth several thousands of pounds.

Simon Powell, the man the story is about, got the idea of founding an online marketplace for people who can’t go on holidays anymore to sell their plane tickets or hotel bookings to someone else.

After sending emails and talking to various companies, Mr. Powell was able to claim part of his money back on his flights, but the things got complicated with the hotel rooms, where he lost nearly £3,000.

“Virgin charged me a no-show fee but the rest went into my account as credit, but with my booking direct with the hotel there was nothing they could do,” he said in an interview. “It was actually the receptionist at the hotel that gave me the idea. She said ‘can you bring someone else or can you find someone else to take the booking off you and we can change the name of the booking?’ and I could charge them what I paid for the room and make some money back.”

He saw a great business opportunity in what had happened to him, especially because there was no platform available at that moment to provide people with this type of services.

There are various reasons why people may cancel their holidays, such as:

• Illness
• Family emergencies
• Relationship break-ups
• Work commitments
• Financial difficulties
• Natural disasters
• Loss of passport

… and the list could go on.

Transfer Travel is “The world’s travel marketplace”, an online platform billed as some sort of an eBay for holidays that was born about two years ago. According to the research performed by the site, about 220,000 rooms in hotels in the US are wasted, not to mention that about 37 percent of people who had planned their holidays canceled them at least once.

People can try and sell basically anything travel-related, from flights to accommodation, package holidays, cruises, or even vouchers. The sellers include the original price and they can come up with a “special” offer.

Users are encouraged to fill out their profiles with real photos and the reason why they can’t go on that particular holiday anymore. On the other hand, Transfer Travel has the duty to verify the genuineness of all bookings. However, it is worth mentioning that the responsibility for both the administration of name changes and cost falls on the vendor.

“We know that 70 percent of travelers are paying for the cheapest hotel or flight option, which is non-refundable because you don’t have to expect to have to change the booking. 80 percent of travel is transferable, but there is a lack of awareness,” Powell explained.

So, in case you’re stuck with an unwanted holiday, the good news is that you can get some money back by transferring it to someone else who might truly enjoy it.