Urbanrestro.com - a one stop portal for venue booking
Updated: Sep 14, 2015 04:07:20pm
New Delhi, Sept 14 (KNN) With over 2000 venues listed across 11 cities, catering to 1500 plus event enquiries monthly, India's first online venue booking platform Urbanrestro.com based in Mumbai is a one stop portal for planning and booking events. KNN speaks to the co-founder Harsh about the company and their future plans.
1. Can you tell us how Urbanrestro works and what kind of events you cater to?
People can choose venues based on their requirements at the click of a button. The events we cater to range from social gatherings like weddings, birthday parties to corporate events such as training, conferences and cocktail parties.
Through Urbanrestro.com we are trying to revolutionize the way people book venues for their events. Our plan is to become a one-stop portal for planning and booking complete events which includes venue, catering, event planning, artists, etc.
Further, venues get a platform to market their services, manage their bookings and thereby increase their businesses.
2. Your business seems to be one of its kind; how did you come upon the idea?
Shriti (the other co-founder) being a foodie, always wanted to start something in the FnB space. Initially we started with a Table reservation portal but as we interacted with more people in this space, we realized that there is a much bigger needto address and problem to solve.
People don’t have a portal, which can provide all the information about a venue and interact with the relevant venue manager. In addition, venues too did have a platform to promote their services and reach out to a larger number of people.
This prompted us to enter into this space and come up with the product, which can act as bridge between them and provide this convenience.
3. What are some of the challenges you faced?
To begin with we had to understand user behavior and build a process and system which makes the user comfortable to book online. Apart from that hiring good talent has always been a challenge and I think it will remain that way in the times to come.
4. What is the annual turnover of your company?
During the last financial year our annual gross merchandise volume (GMV) was INR 3 crore. Since then we have been growing at a fast pace. Last month alone we crossed 68 lakhs of GMV and in the last 5 months we have managed bookings worth 2.7 crore.
5. Since funding is a key requirement for any startup, how did you manage to arrange the funds for Urbanrestro?
Initially, we put in our own capital as seed money. After a year or so, we got support from friends and family. Right from the beginning we have kept our expenses under control and focused on generating revenue due to which our spending has been on the lower side.
Now that we have proven the concept and got traction, we are going for a bigger round of funding which will be used for building technology tools for better customer experience, marketing and that will help us expand into different cities.
6. What are your perceptions regarding the competition in the digital market?
The competition in digital market has increased a lot as the best way to market today is online through Search or display ads or social media ads. It does not require a minimum cost to start; you can start from as low as INR 100 and when you see results you can gradually increase.
7. What is the USP of your startup?
Unlike a lead generation business, in this space we are focusing on building up a transaction-based model, where in user can not only get desired options, compare and shortlist them but also get the negotiated packages and finally do the booking online.
We are focusing on building a booking engine for our users through which users can get real time availability and offers and which also enables them to communicate with the merchants over the platform.
8. E-commerce has captured offline shopping trends all over the country. Can you comment on the trend?
In today’s world, with both members of the family working, they have limited time for shopping. They are looking for convenience, solutions which can bring products/services to their doorsteps. Also, with the advent of technology and smart mobiles, more and more people are moving towards online shopping.
On top of it, users are getting better deals online since suppliers are saving their costs of renting and setting up a shop and are passing the benefits to the users. I think this trend is here to stay.
9. How you see the growth and development of SMEs (Small and Medium enterprises) in the online space in India?
Lately, we have seen students from good schools leaving good high paying jobs and preferring to become entrepreneurs. With good talent moving to build business of the new generation, we see a lot of growth in the SMEs in the online space.
10. What are your plans for Urbanrestro in the coming years?
In two years time, we want to become like AirBnB (a website for people to list, find, and rent lodging) in the Venue Booking Space. We know that there are many more variables attached while booking a venue as compared to booking a room. But with every passing day we are getting deeper insights into the venue booking process and we are trying to incorporate those variables onto our online booking process.
11. Do you think the government is playing its part for the betterment of online trading in India?
Don’t know about online trading but yes on the E-commerce front. The Prime Minister himself has mentioned the importance of startups in his Independence Day Speech. He came up with a tagline: Start-up India, Stand-up India which is very true because this will not only create new jobs but also make our markets more competitive and cost efficient.
The government is also coming out with schemes to fund early stage startups, which I think is important because everyone will not have the seed money to start something of their own. (KNN)
1. Can you tell us how Urbanrestro works and what kind of events you cater to?
People can choose venues based on their requirements at the click of a button. The events we cater to range from social gatherings like weddings, birthday parties to corporate events such as training, conferences and cocktail parties.
Through Urbanrestro.com we are trying to revolutionize the way people book venues for their events. Our plan is to become a one-stop portal for planning and booking complete events which includes venue, catering, event planning, artists, etc.
Further, venues get a platform to market their services, manage their bookings and thereby increase their businesses.
2. Your business seems to be one of its kind; how did you come upon the idea?
Shriti (the other co-founder) being a foodie, always wanted to start something in the FnB space. Initially we started with a Table reservation portal but as we interacted with more people in this space, we realized that there is a much bigger needto address and problem to solve.
People don’t have a portal, which can provide all the information about a venue and interact with the relevant venue manager. In addition, venues too did have a platform to promote their services and reach out to a larger number of people.
This prompted us to enter into this space and come up with the product, which can act as bridge between them and provide this convenience.
3. What are some of the challenges you faced?
To begin with we had to understand user behavior and build a process and system which makes the user comfortable to book online. Apart from that hiring good talent has always been a challenge and I think it will remain that way in the times to come.
4. What is the annual turnover of your company?
During the last financial year our annual gross merchandise volume (GMV) was INR 3 crore. Since then we have been growing at a fast pace. Last month alone we crossed 68 lakhs of GMV and in the last 5 months we have managed bookings worth 2.7 crore.
5. Since funding is a key requirement for any startup, how did you manage to arrange the funds for Urbanrestro?
Initially, we put in our own capital as seed money. After a year or so, we got support from friends and family. Right from the beginning we have kept our expenses under control and focused on generating revenue due to which our spending has been on the lower side.
Now that we have proven the concept and got traction, we are going for a bigger round of funding which will be used for building technology tools for better customer experience, marketing and that will help us expand into different cities.
6. What are your perceptions regarding the competition in the digital market?
The competition in digital market has increased a lot as the best way to market today is online through Search or display ads or social media ads. It does not require a minimum cost to start; you can start from as low as INR 100 and when you see results you can gradually increase.
7. What is the USP of your startup?
Unlike a lead generation business, in this space we are focusing on building up a transaction-based model, where in user can not only get desired options, compare and shortlist them but also get the negotiated packages and finally do the booking online.
We are focusing on building a booking engine for our users through which users can get real time availability and offers and which also enables them to communicate with the merchants over the platform.
8. E-commerce has captured offline shopping trends all over the country. Can you comment on the trend?
In today’s world, with both members of the family working, they have limited time for shopping. They are looking for convenience, solutions which can bring products/services to their doorsteps. Also, with the advent of technology and smart mobiles, more and more people are moving towards online shopping.
On top of it, users are getting better deals online since suppliers are saving their costs of renting and setting up a shop and are passing the benefits to the users. I think this trend is here to stay.
9. How you see the growth and development of SMEs (Small and Medium enterprises) in the online space in India?
Lately, we have seen students from good schools leaving good high paying jobs and preferring to become entrepreneurs. With good talent moving to build business of the new generation, we see a lot of growth in the SMEs in the online space.
10. What are your plans for Urbanrestro in the coming years?
In two years time, we want to become like AirBnB (a website for people to list, find, and rent lodging) in the Venue Booking Space. We know that there are many more variables attached while booking a venue as compared to booking a room. But with every passing day we are getting deeper insights into the venue booking process and we are trying to incorporate those variables onto our online booking process.
11. Do you think the government is playing its part for the betterment of online trading in India?
Don’t know about online trading but yes on the E-commerce front. The Prime Minister himself has mentioned the importance of startups in his Independence Day Speech. He came up with a tagline: Start-up India, Stand-up India which is very true because this will not only create new jobs but also make our markets more competitive and cost efficient.
The government is also coming out with schemes to fund early stage startups, which I think is important because everyone will not have the seed money to start something of their own. (KNN)
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