Meet a real Aussie wiz kid

When The Mole spoke with Robert Chamberlain MD of www.airfaresflights.com.au little did The Mole realise that the discussion would be with a very successful business man, one showing every sign of doing very well indeed into the future and he is only 23!

www.airfaresflights.com.au is described as a leading independent travel search site, based in Australia and established in January 2003 by Robert who describes himself as a series internet entrepreneur, telling The Mole, “I like creating businesses and have set up this business in Australia and based on that success, have also set it up in the UK where it is known as www.airfaresflights.co.uk.”

“I know people say that I am 23 year old and what do I know, but I have proved that I can do it and while the UK is a very different market to Australia, the same concept applies and it is going very well indeed.”

“The Australian business also doing very well indeed and I actually started it as a university project and then it simply grew from there.”

“At the end of that particular subject at uni when I set the business up, I thought I would put it out there and it didn’t do too much, because I think that was because my marketing strategy was wrong.”  “It was also costing me a lot of money and for a uni student pretty hard for me!”

“I then changed my model, changed my marketing channel and focussed on the areas giving me traffic, including putting some ads on the site and thought that I would get very little but it started working really well!”

“It always amazes me when I think about it, that I very nearly closed it down, but then it started making me some serious money – and that was in my honours year in uni!”

“I then worked on it a lot more and spent half my summer holiday getting it right and reinvested the cash I had and this year it has been growing at 20% a month and it is now in the Hitwise Top Ten travel agents’ sites.”

“I actually see this business as a travel search engine or travel directory not just another travel web site and advertisers can advertise the deals they want to put on the site, which is a different model to others.”

“We are also mainly focussed on flights and it is not a white label solution, because if you enter your travel details e.g. Sydney – London, you will be offered flights from a range of providers and you can also book accommodation or go for one of our special deals because we are also focussed on deals.”

“In effect what we do is act as an online travel directory, linking travellers with travel retailers and unlike other travel sites, www.airfaresflights.com.au does not sell airfares or package deals, rather it offers travellers an independent price guide and links to the respective sites for bookings.”

With unique visitors to the site of over 250,000 a month, when asked about the future, Robert said, “The key thing for me is to develop more scale and I have the technology, so watch this space!!”

He added, “I believe that we need to add simplicity and flexibility to travel searches and there are still lots of issues to finding the best deal at the best time.”  “I am also looking at improving the search functionalities in travel and we need to offer more granularity than others.”

“Aussies are searching and booking on line more and more every day and I have seen international travel booming in the last nine months with Australia catching up with the UK and USA very quickly and the greater flexibility available now is the key.”

“I think that there is still very much a role for travel agents and that is in specialties and complex itineraries and also some people simply just like to go to a full service agency and that will always be the case.”

Robert also said, “It is interesting that the main demographics for my site are 25 – 36 yrs and generally they are people are at work who want to book fast, with the information available in one stop and that is what we concentrate on.”

“Other research we have conducted shows that 3:00pm on a Monday is when our visitors hit a low and start thinking about holidays and interestingly and very surprisingly weekends are always the quietest times.”  “I thought that it would be the opposite, but people like to use the computers in their offices.”

“We really like looking at people’s habits and another interesting fact is that just after having a holiday is the peak time when people think about where to next, with the Monday after a big holiday always a big day on sites.”

“The only change in the way I do business is that I now have an office in Chifley Tower, so that I can meet with clients and others in smart business surroundings, but it is a serviced office, giving me the flexibility without the liability, but other than that, nothing really has changed, I am what I am and looking forward to massive growth!”

For more information visit: www.airfaresflights.com.au

A Special Report by The Mole