Meet us at Proto.in 18th/19th July

We guys are hitting Proto.in this 18th and 19th July (that's tomorrow and day after) and if you are going, then make sure meeting us in the plan. We will be attending the event and it won't be hard to catch us we would be sporting iXiGO Tshirts at the meeting. You can catch our CEO for business fundas and the rest of the team to know what it feels like to work in a startup. And that's not all we will be open to all questions from you and will be watching out for people who could really gel and be an iXiGEM so that you can be a part of our team.

And that's not all. If you have it in your DNA you could walk away with free goodies from iXiGO (Tshirts and more) and proudly wear your support to everyone. We will be asking questions and might even hold on the spot contests. Be sure to meet us there!

We just launched our first audio visual

An in house production, late Saturday night with all iXiGEMs super charged to get out our first Audio Visual. We have hosted this on Youtube. Have a look and tell us what you think of our visual for India's biggest hotel search.

And when you are done, read about our main features of Hotels 2.0 - smarter, easier and faster.

William Klippgen's insights into the Travel Industry.

William Klippgen, who is on our board of directors from BAF Spectrum recently shared some insights into the Indian search travel industry and his visions of the future.

If you want a good insight into the Indian travel industry, thoughts on the Venture capital and also to know the state of the competition in the Indian market, then this is an interview you wouldn't want to miss.

Here's a snippet.

And, yes, we believe the travel search engines are materially different. Today, you can compare iXiGO with competitors and you will find that it is the engine that most often comes up with the best travel combination and price. We believe this matters to consumers. And we believe consumers are smart and that, ultimately, the search engine that continues to deliver the best value will capture the largest market share. - William Klippgen

And here's a fun fact, he prefers Rajasthan for it's vibrancy over other states! Grab all his thoughts on this page.

Hotels 2.0- Presenting all the features.

If you have been keeping tabs on us you'll no doubt notice a new offering from us. We have rolled out the new and improved Hotels 2.0 feature. This revamps Hotels in a smarter, easier and faster way.

Let's look at some of the features we are offering here and how it would help you. You can click on the images to enlarge the images.

Hotel Description Boxes - If there's one thing that we think would be the most appealing to the user, it would be this. We have an improved design, lots of information and a better placement of descriptions and pictures. This is a new-age lightbox designed to be simple, sleek and sexy.


Hotel Reviews - With this feature you can now get to read all the reviews of the hotel before you book it. This is available on the bottom right corner of our new hotel description box.


City Map Views - This feature lets you locate and narrow down where exactly your hotel is on a detailed city map. We now show you key landmarks within the searched city displayed on the city map view.


Distance Filter - With this great filter you can now choose the distance of the hotel from the city center, airport, railway station or your desired address. You can now see all the other hotels located closest to the destination you choose. This gives you multiple selections within a certain radius.

Hotel Property Types - Now you can filter out hotels based on property types. So, if you want to see only hostels or guesthouses, just flick a few check-boxes and narrow down to the exact property you desire. And the rates are printed along side each filter. This is on the left bar.

Amenities - Search for whether the hotel you are searching should have the internet, a gym, a spa, a bar, a parking space and a swimming pool by just checking the features you want and unclicking the ones you don't. It's that simple!


Smart Bar - If you wanted quick options to print the hotel details, bookmark in your browser, expand to see the main map view or change the name of the hotel you are searching for, you can do all of that now with the smart bar. Easy to use, fun to click and very useful.



Go through all these features, click around and tell us what you think in our feedback. We would love to hear from you.

Happy searching,
The iXiGO team

Collect your proto.in passes at the iXiGO office.

Proto.in is an event that gives entrepreneurs a platform to express their vision and showcase their imagination. It was this very event in the January of 2007, that our CEO Aloke Bajpai and our COO Dharmendra Yashovardhan had given their preview of this very website, iXiGO.com.

This time around, the great guys at Proto.in are back and are hosting the event in IIT Delhi on the 18th and 19th of July. This is a great event to meet budding visionaries as well as the seasoned veterans at their special alumni dinner meet, where you can rub shoulders with those that have been there and done that.

We are also the official contacts in Delhi for collecting your tickets. You can get in touch with us at the following information

iXiGO.com
324, Galleria Towers
DLF Phase 4
Gurgaon - 122 002

Contact: Dharmendra Yashovardhan
Email: proto@ixigo.com
Ph- 0124 404 5281

Here are a list of things you can expect at the event with dinners with entrepreneurs, seeing the top 20 most promising startups and a lot of gyan. You can read more at their blog.

3 reasons why we think booking directly with airlines saves more!

We really think that with the rising charges we see in the airlines, the passenger must look into direct booking of air tickets. This means you don't go through a travel agent and book directly with the airlines which we really think pays off a lot more. Let us look at three reasons

Why we think booking directly is more beneficial to you.

1. Search and book immediately- Easy convenient steps. No searching hassles with iXiGO around and all the airlines offer easy 1 or 2 step booking processes. Whereas, on the other hand you would have to book through an agent or OTA, pay a commission, get them to verify tickets for you, then book those tickets and then get you confirmation. Seems a bit too complicated right?

2. No hassles in checking commissions, no commissions in fact! - With rising prices and air fuel charges surging through the roof a difference of Rs 500 to Rs 1000 is important. Why pay extra when you can handle your own bookings and gain complete control over your bookings? We know how painful it is to bargain and compare rates and check over 5-6 different sites to see which one offers you the least payment for that particular route. Some of the costs are even hidden and we are quite wise enough now to know that you wont get any of those Rs 99/- fares anymore. Just search, choose, click and pay. Then fly.

3. Almost no lead time in cancellation - Suppose you decided to cancel your booking. The trouble starts not with you only having to decide where to book next but in the amount of time that will pass by before you get your money back. You first have to spend 4-5 days with the booking agent to get the cash back besides the 5-6 days it would take the airlines to cancel your booking anyway (through these people). Easier cancellation if booked directly is just calling the call center, paying the cancellation charges and getting the refund back on your ticket. Now you pay double commission (some agents avoid it but most don't) and then wait 2 - 3 weeks before you see your money back.

What do you think? Have you any experiences that are not in tune with this? Do you agree? Let us know!

iXiGEMs go outing!!

We had a bash this week. It was a great Wednesday (and a tad bit too hot) after the rain shower and we iXiGEMS set out to get ourselves unwinded after a year of hard work. The pictures show what followed that day.

Our French cricket star, invisible woman J, dodging everyone out.

Team captain of the winning team, Pink Panthers, taking the prize from the self appointed chief guest.

Winning team with their prizes, the Pink Panthers.

Blindfold competition, this turned out to be a whole lot of fun with the blindfolded guys wrestling and shoving each other and some even almost taking a dip in to the pool.

Zor lagake haiyaa!!! Tug of war competition on full swing ( specifically note the expressions on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th members - Ayush, R2 and Lok

Even the spartans from 300 didn't match up to these fine dressed warriors..


Team 4 trying to sell their oil guaranteed to work faster than pheromones.

Not one moment from the Dumb charades, where movies like Ugly and Pugly were enacted in the most ingenious ways to the extremely intense French cricket to the final round of Housie turned out to be boring. An extremely fun evening with great company and food. The best possible way you could spend an evening.

You are cordially invited for the next year! Cheers!