The "Life And Death Exams" Under The Epidemic Situation: How Can This Entrepreneurial Brigade Succeed?

In the past year, TravelRight has been regarded as a dark horse in China's tourism technology service industry. The company, founded in 2018, has worked with flight managers, Tongcheng, Ctrip and other large OTA companies to help passengers with flight delays get "surprise".

According to the EU aviation claims Ordinance EC261 (hereinafter referred to as the EC261 Ordinance), TravelRight has set up a one-stop intelligent claim settlement platform for eligible passengers who refuse to load, cancel or delay for a long time. However, as the business is approaching the golden age of development, the start-up business has been hit by the unexpected shutdown of the European Central airline due to the new crown pneumonia outbreak.

It is worth mentioning that, after the cancellation of the ITB Berlin (Berlin international tourism exhibition), the world's largest tourism exposition, the company founder Sun Sun and her team prepared for a long time to participate in the planned event. The TravelRight created by her missed the opportunity to stage the world stage once a year.

In fact, the spread of the global epidemic not only brought sun sun a personal adventure, but also pushed a "life and death exam" to her company.

How can Sun Sun and her company break down under heavy pressure?

"Bad" trip to ITB Berlin

"Empty Pudong T2 terminal, 14 days in advance to Amsterdam, so that we can participate in ITB Berlin on time. Although the outbreak has led to the cancellation of many major activities, we hope ITB can continue. " On the evening of February 19th, sun sun wrote the passage in WeChat's circle of friends while waiting for a flight to Holland.

ITB Berlin is the world's largest B2B tourism special exhibition, held in Berlin, Germany, every March. This year's event was originally scheduled for from March 4th to 8th. According to Christian Gerke, chief executive of the Berlin International Exhibition Co., Ltd., the 54 year old event attracts more than 10000 exhibitors from more than 180 countries every year, which is extremely important to the world tourism industry.

For Chinese tourism enterprises, the importance of this tourism event is self-evident. In twenty-first Century, the economic report reporters inquired the public information, and found that in 2016, tuniu.com, a leading OTA company in China, organized the ITB Chinese Night 2016 "China Night" campaign jointly with the Berlin Tourism Bureau. It was the first time that ITB Berlin built the theme of China's activities. Then in 2017, ITB set up a special field in China and opened its new journey in China.

"We are well prepared for the appearance of ITB Berlin." Sun Sun told the twenty-first Century business reporter that arriving in Amsterdam 14 days in advance is due to foreign concerns about the segregation of Chinese immigration personnel to ensure punctual participation in ITB Berlin 2020 activities.

TravelRight, founded by Sun Sun, is a travel service provider based on flight delay claims. Since its establishment in 2018, the company has used the EC261 Ordinance as the main basis to provide flight claims applications for passengers departing from the European Union or arriving in the European Union and being delayed by EU airlines.

"Every year, 500 thousand tickets are expected to be paid back, but only 0.02% The delayed passengers initiated the claim. Sun Sun told the twenty-first Century economic news reporter that although the market potential of TravelRight is huge, the awareness of passengers' compensation is missing, and ITB Berlin 2020 is undoubtedly an excellent opportunity for business promotion. According to the plan, sun sun will fly to Germany in March 4th.

Accidents appeared since February 28th.

In February 26th, the organizers of ITB Berlin, at the request of the German local public health bureau, informed all exhibitors that they had to fill out a statement to identify people belonging to the new crown pneumonia risk category. In February 27th, the organizers of ITB Berlin updated the latest news, "because the new crown virus is spreading in Europe, the organizers expect that the number of visitors to ITB Berlin will be reduced. And due to safety measures, the entrance area of the exhibition is expected to peak at 9:30-10:00, and tourists need to wait. "

In fact, the above two messages indicate that at least February 27th ITB Berlin 2020 will be held as scheduled. But a statement in February 28th released the signal that the exhibition may be cancelled. "Berlin International Exhibition Co., Ltd. is currently coordinating with the public health bureau of the federal and state level in Germany to discuss how to continue the exhibition. It is expected that the latest information will be released as early as this evening." On the evening of that day, ITB Berlin officially announced the cancellation of the exhibition.

"ITB has been cancelled." At WeChat, Sun Sun had some regrets. After missing this opportunity to stage the world stage, a series of troubles surrounding the cancellation of itinerary followed.

"Accommodation booking platform Airbnb, British Aerospace Yi Jie aviation is not very friendly to my refund processing, and is really different from the domestic platform." Sun Sun told the twenty-first Century business news reporter that because of the above platform, the new crown pneumonia epidemic was regarded as force majeure, and no refund for her lodging and airline tickets. After fighting for it, Airbnb agreed to refund on the basis of its practice in China, but Yi Jie aviation service was ruthless and unwilling to "relax".

In March 12th, sun sun had a more dangerous scene on his way home. "I remember clearly that thirtieth hours after landing, I received a phone call from the epidemic prevention department in Shanghai and told me that a new crown pneumonia case was confirmed on the return flight." Sun Sun told the twenty-first Century business news reporter that luckily, because she changed seats earlier, she was only listed as a general contact person.

But recalled this "bad" ITB Berlin trip, sun sun is still somewhat helpless and angry. And the experience of her "refund difficulty" has also strengthened her entrepreneurial career.

Startups' "challenges of life and death"

According to statistics from the industry, the number of Chinese tourists reached 13 million 500 thousand in 2019. TravelRight survey found that about 500 thousand of the bookings were eligible for claims, and on average, each ticket got the highest 600 Euro settlement fee, but the reality was that it was only 0.02% The passengers made a claim to the airline.

According to the EC261 regulations under the TravelRight, the eligible flight distance is less than 1500 km, causing passengers to delay more than 2 hours or more, making a compensation of 250 euros; the European Union flights within the range of >1500 km or the 1500 km flight with a range of less than 3500 km or more, resulting in passenger delays exceeding 3 hours, and compensation for 400 euros; flight delays of >3500 km lead to passenger delays. More than 4 hours, compensation 600 euros; if the airline for passengers to change the flight arrival time is not later than the original time 2/3/4 hours (corresponding to the above 3 flights), the cash compensation can be reduced by half. In addition, the Ordinance has a retrospective period of 2-6 years and has no restrictions on the nationality of passengers. The implementation of the EC261 regulations has also become an important driving factor for improving the punctuality rate of the whole European airline.

"According to the average 450 Euro claims, you can calculate how much compensation our company can recover for Chinese customers." According to the data provided by Sun Sun, the market size of the European Union's claims filed by TravelRight is more than 200 million euros per year.

It is worth mentioning that in this field, Airhelp, an overseas player's air passenger rights and interests service platform, provided similar services in 2013. The company's official data show that it has already claimed a total of 2 million passengers. One point nine five Billion dollars.

Flight delay claims, in essence, is the case with the shipping division. Due to the cumbersome material collection, the unfamiliar process of claim settlement and the long communication cycle, the cost of personal rights protection is high. Therefore, it is very necessary to entrust a professional third party organization.

Sun Sun said that TravelRight is currently the most authoritative airline delay claims service provider in Asia. Through cooperation with Chinese OTA companies, the company can accurately transfer intelligent claims to the passengers who need it.

However, with the spread of the new crown pneumonia epidemic in the world, especially in Europe, the European routes and European airlines have been cancelled and grounded because of the epidemic situation. According to incomplete statistics of twenty-first Century economic report, as of March 20th, 11 airlines including Poland airlines, Czech airlines, Scandinavian Airlines, Austria airlines and Brussels airlines announced that they had been grounded since March 15th. This is a "test of life and death" for the TravelRight, which mainly claims the European airline and shipping division.

Referring to sun sun's own experience, flights cancelled due to the new crown pneumonia epidemic are force majeure and are difficult to apply to the EC261 Ordinance. It means that TravelRight will lose a lot of business increment in the future.

"If there is no impact of the epidemic, this year 2 and March will be the golden period for the development of our company." Sun Sun said that according to the plan, TravelRight will usher in the important issue of new website online and new OTA cooperation with another domestic OTA leading enterprise in 2 and March. The spring festival tourism season and the drainage of the platform will bring considerable growth to the company. But the increasingly severe new crown pneumonia epidemic in Europe has shut down an important "valve" for TravelRight's past business increments.

Faced with this major blow, Sun Sun and her team had to find new business growth points.

"To be honest, we are too busy to feel sad now." Sun Sun said that after the new flights shrink, considering that the EC261 Ordinance has a retrospective period of 2-6 years, the company focused on the incremental flight of historical flights and relied on the introduction of the OTA platform to fill the missing business volume.

The adjustment in this direction will soon bring new cases. "In March 9th, we received an invitation from a new customer, and in March 17th, we got a confirmation letter covering the air division's claim for settlement. The total amount of the claim was 1800 euros." Sun Sun said that in addition to flight claims, the company is expected to extend to other travel services such as baggage service or insurance.

In the case of no layoffs, retrenchment has also been a frustration for the start-up company to cope with the test of life and death. Sun Sun said that after consulting with the team members, everyone agreed to reduce administrative expenses such as travel, which is expected to save 40% of the cost for the company to maintain stable operation of the cash flow.

"Preparations for a year and a half will usher in a golden period of rapid growth in business, but the outbreak of the disease has suddenly put a" test of life and death "before us. Such a gap inevitably made Sun Sun feel a little lost. "But in another way, it is a rare experience as a startup company. After successfully passing the epidemic, we will not fight to death."

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