QuickBytes: How TruTrip is weathering the pandemic

QuickBytes is a Q&A series featuring Asian startups that showcases their innovations and the challenges they face. The following interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

Pinky Tham and Hugh Batley, founders of TruTrip / Photo credit: TruTrip

What is your company’s elevator pitch?

TruTrip provides companies thoughtful and intuitive travel services that protect their businesses, care for their employees, and contribute to their business goals.

How much traction have you gotten?

We’re seeing a lot of traction, especially in Malaysia where there has been more domestic demand. People and organizations are realizing that they tend to do travel preparations a bit too late, and that it’s worth getting started on them early.

Who was your first hire and why?

Our head of design, Fabian Ng.

At TruTrip, we value design and usability, both of which form a client’s experience of our app. We want to fit right into our clients’ worlds, even though the needs of SMEs are varied and unique.

Photo credit: TruTrip

We also know that we are in a market where people are used to a certain experience when using travel sites, so there’s little room for introducing a “new” feel. With the end-to-end experience being so important to our cause, we needed the right person to lead it from the start.

What is your biggest challenge?

The onset of Covid-19. Everything revolves around the pandemic now.

When the pandemic started, we knew that the travel industry would be put on hold.

But we were ready to work through it so that when travel does come back, our services would be needed. We embraced the pandemic and doubled down on investing in our services through what we call the “Post-Covid Essentials v1”.

• Our traveler care platform: By integrating information about a customer and their team’s whereabouts with the latest intelligence from travel risk assessment platform RiskLine, we help businesses keep themselves and their people informed about the ever-changing travel risks.
• Our flexible booking offering: Companies can book with confidence and be assured of a minimum 80% refund, which they can receive within seven days, if they cancel for any reason at least 24 hours before the trip.
• Restrictions and travel processes that are built into the booking flow: We want to provide clients clarity regarding the continuously changing travel restrictions and entry processes all over the world so we constantly monitor over 65,000 routes, 2,000 Green Lanes, and 700 web pages. We share all the information right within our booking process so they don’t have to worry about any surprises when traveling.
• Crisis Management and Medivac: We’ve partnered with travel security provider Crisis24 and several local Medivac providers to ensure customers are covered regardless of the situation.

Our goal is to make sure businesses have the entire spectrum of services that they need in order to travel with 100% confidence. This will help them, us, and the travel industry get back on course.

What do you have planned next?

Our plans over the next few months is to work on the post-Covid-19 essentials we’ve mentioned, as well as develop our sister website Covid Entry Check which will provide up-to-date information on the Covid-19 travel situation.

We are also working on our expansion into the Malaysian market, which will complete our localization efforts and offer a better flight inventory. We’re also working on an air mile transparency tool.

We’re thinking long-term. We have a ton of ideas that we’ll be implementing in the future to help businesses, but ultimately, TruTrip’s plans will be dictated by businesses themselves. We’re focused on keeping up with them in terms of speed and workflow; the rest will come from customer feedback.

What is the best advice you’ve ever received?

Be authentic with your leadership and communication style and your brand. It takes too much time and energy trying to be like someone else, and those are things that most business leaders can’t afford to waste.

This content was produced by Tech in Asia Studios, which connects brands with Asia’s tech community. Learn more about partnering with Tech in Asia Studios.