New 'eBay for travel' lets you buy people's unwanted holidays

A man stuck with an unwanted luxury holiday to Dubai worth thousands of pounds after splitting with his partner has founded an online marketplace where travellers struck by illness, trauma or a relationship breakdown can try to sell their non-refundable flights, cruises or hotel rooms.

Simon Powell was able to claim some money back on his flights but £3,000 worth of hotel rooms went to waste.

“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. “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.”

Powell, who had no such luck, was struck by the absence of a platform that would allow holidaymakers with an unusable booking to recoup some of the cost, as well as providing someone else with a bargain.

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Transfer Travel, billed as an eBay for holidays, was born two years ago, and has just completed its second round of funding. Research by the site found that some 220,000 hotels rooms a day are wasted in the US, while 37 per cent of holidaymakers have had to cancel a trip before.

Sellers can try to flog anything from flights to package holidays, with listings including the original cost and a preferred price (buyers can make offers). Powell says sellers are encouraged to fill out profiles, with photos and the reason for being unable to travel, while Transfer Travel verifies that all bookings are genuine and the responsibility for the cost and administration of any name changes falls on the vendor.

Powell said last week that those travellers who had their cut-price tickets cancelled by British Airways, after the airline spotted a pricing error, would have been able to use the site to sell their non-refundable accommodation.

What to do when holidays go wrong

A browse of the site reveals a return flight to New York with Primera in July selling for £225, down from £525, Wowair flights from Dublin to Los Angeles and back with a fortnight in between, selling for £308, a snip on the cost price of £781. A family of five could buy returns flights to Faro to Leeds Bradford in July for £442, down from £1,106. Savings on package holidays, transferable under EU law, include 21 per cent off a 10-night stay in Tenerife for two.

“We know that 70 per cent of travellers 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,” said Powell, “80 per cent of travel is transferable, but there is a lack of awareness.”

While the motivation behind the site is to help people stuck with unwanted travel, Powell says it is a buyer’s market. He’s already seen, for whatever reason, honeymoons and stag dos for sale.

“There is a buy it now price, but there is a system where you can make an offer, because it’s a buyer’s market. But we’d like to help people who are left with non-refundable travel. The focus is to help those.

“If you’ve got a £1,000 four-night stay in London, the seller might take £300/400 because they just want something back.”

Transfer Travel then takes 15 per cent of the selling price. To protect against fraud, the money is not released to the seller until the booking has been redeemed by the airline or accommodation provider.

The site already has some 50,000 visits a month, and roughly 1,000 listings (70 per cent flights, 25 per cent accommodation and five per cent other). Given the tales of heartbreak behind many of these bargain holidays, should travellers feel guilty about taking advantage?

“Not at all,” insisters Powell, “it is a chance to give these unlucky people some money back!”