Best Business Travel Innovations - A Guest Post

This is a guest post from Logan, a friend who is an expert on private air charters. He writes on some recent innovations and projects related to his field travel. 

Best Business Travel Innovations

As someone who is not short on travel experience, I can appreciate a good innovation in the field of business travel. Turns out the folks at Fast Company and the Global Business Travel Association share the same appreciation. On July 22, Fast Company and the GBTA will present the 2012 Business Traveler Innovation Awards. The awards has 7 categories including “Sustainable Practice,” “Traveler Comfort,” “Travel Personalization,” “Outstanding Apps,” ”Travel Convenience and Efficiency,” “Travel Management” and “Traveler Productivity.”  Visit this link to check out more information about the nominees. Of the many worthy nominees, I wanted to spotlight a few of my personal favorites.

The Carbon Dioxide Emissions Calculator

This handy tool allows customers of Avis Rental Group to calculate their CO2 emissions. The formula Avis uses was developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and can calculate emissions for any time period and location and allows this information to be reported by businesses which have established rate codes. In this age, more and more people are conscious of and curious about their carbon footprint. This is a great tool to give people an idea of the impact they are making on the environment.

The Travisa Visa App

The Travisa Visa App gives relevant information on Visa and passport services to you via your Android or iOS device. This can be a life saver when you’re traveling between many different countries and keeping the various rules and regulations straight gets tough.

Cabforce.com

This site allows users to find, book and pay for a taxi in Europe from their mobile device. Gone are the days when you had to wait half an hour in the pouring rain simply trying to hail a cab. With this site, you have the power to do it all from the comfort of home. The company will also be launching its mobile app at the GBTA Conference.

TRX Travelinx 

If you’ve ever had multiple flights in a day or simply had many places to be in a short period of time, you’ll appreciate this app. The Travelinx app converts your entire travel itinerary into one simple-to-use list. This is the easiest and most efficient way to handle a schedule chock full of meetings and flights and bus rides.

Those are just a few of the nominees for awards at the GBTA Conference that I really appreciated. Check out a few of the nominees for yourself and next time you find yourself traveling on business, be sure and take advantage of a few of these great innovations in business travel.

Author's bio: Logan is a guest author and expert on private air charters. He uses Teterboro airport to fly all around the world.

Mysore Calling ... Day 2

The next morning started off with a guided tour of the farm where we saw Ripe Guavas, Lemons, Tangerines, Chickoos, Mangoes (Not too many considering the season has ended) and a few other fruits I was seeing for the first time and pretty much every vegetable one might need for day-to-day cooking. It was really nice to pluck some ripe Guavas (with the red core) and almost instantaneously bite into them. Yummm!!! Around 11am, got ready and decided to do some sightseeing. Since we were quite close to Infy, decide to go down memory lane and see how Infy had changed (if at all). We obviously couldn't get in but we did stop over at the Gate and ask the Security Guard at the Infosys Gate (for random directions which we didn't need) as we got a peek past the gate at some of the Buildings. We drove around the compound looking at some of the other buildings and facilities and decided to head off towards the city before one of the security guards posted at a height near the 4 corners of Infosys Campus shoots at us assuming we are terrorist doing recee. :-)

We then went straight to the Mysore Palace got tickets and went around watching in astonishment the Palace and the Life of the Maharajah and the poor dude(s) (Wodeyar and his children/grandchildren) who missed out on all the fun because India gained Freedom and became a Democratic Republic. I had of course been there a few times, but was surprisingly the first time for Bhagya (someone who had studied in Tiptur for 4 years and probably visited Bangalore tons of times). Some minor shopping (Sandal scented Incense Sticks, Perfumes, Soaps, etc) later, we headed off to the Jaganmohan Palace. This included an Art Gallery and a Museum which had all of the utensils, weapons, dresses and portraits of all the Kings and their History. I also learnt on this visit that the fifth King of the Wodeyar Dynasty was actually (Ranadhira Kantheerava) Narasaraja Wodeyar I (1638–1659). For some weird unknown reason, this made me happy. :-) A little more shopping and we decided to take a break and head back home (to the farmhouse) but not before we stopped over to have some pastries. Did I mention that before the plans for the trip got finalized, we were actually on the GM Diet. :-( Need to start afresh or maybe screw the diet and get back to some workouts.

Before we reached home, I saw a sign-board that read Kalidasa Road and this again brought back nostalgic memories of the 3-4 months spent at our Apartment on KD Road (It is Bangalore’s MG Road equivalent in Mysore). Decided to drive around and find our old Apartment and get a pic or two. We finally found it after asking a couple of people for directions. Since it had started drizzling, we managed with pics from the car and headed on to the farmhouse.

Since it was Ganesha, Periyaswami had cooked Ganesha's favorite sweet - Modak. Had a couple over lunch and hogged the other dishes he had cooked. We were also warned to keep enough space for the evening's special - Persian Veg Pulao. After lunch, had some nice filter coffee (yummm!!!) and after a lot of thought decided that Brindavan Gardens and the Musical Fountain was not to be missed (especially since KRS was not too far from Mohan Uncle's farmhouse). Started around 5ish and we were at Brindavan after some bumper to bumper traffic around a kilometer from the entrance to KRS where the Parking Fee was being collected. The parking lot was packed to the core and with great difficulty managed to find what was a suspect parking slot. Even though I was a little worried that my new car might get nicked by someone trying to sneak in the gap between my car and the next line, decided to take a chance since there didn't seem any better options. 

We got lucky with a new line that got formed at the Ticket Counter and rushed to enter Brindavan Gardens. It was better than I had memories off from my last visit (Of course Bhagya wasn't with me the last time round ;-) so she does get some credit) and around 7ish, we decided to head off to the North Block of Brindavan where the Musical Fountain was showing. We were shocked to see the bridge packed with people trying to get to the other end. But left with no choice, we decided to join the rush and after about 15mins of struggling through and guarding our purses & camera from pickpocketeers, we finally got to the Musical Fountain area. It was pretty impressive but for some weird reason, there was a 10 min gap between every set of 2-3 songs. After watching a couple of sets, we decided to sneak out midway through a set so that we don't get caught in the rush again. It was a great decision because we were back at the parking lot in 5 mins. Had a couple of Sugar Cane juices and started back towards the farmhouse. It was a nice short drive back as well with lot of overtaking maneuvers that would have made a Schumacher happy. Yummy Persian Pulao and lot of home-grown fruits later, we were ready to crash.

Also Read ... Mysore Calling ... Day 1

Coming Up ... Mysore Calling ... Day 3 & Some Pics

Mysore calling ... Day 1

Long weekend and plans of a Ooty+Kerala Trip cut short due to Bhagya's needing to go to Hyderabad on Saturday meant that we had to come up with a quick plan for Wed-Thu. Wed morning as we start typing in Google "Places to see near", the first Auto Suggest option that comes up is Bangalore and then comes Mysore. That's how we make plans in the Internet or Google Era.

Even before I could pick Bangalore and hit enter, we are both like "Purrrrfecttt!!!". We had been talking about visiting Mohan Uncle's Farmhouse in Mysore for quite some time now (He had moved in around 5 years back when I was in the US and somehow everytime there was a family trip to Mysore, I had been out of the country). I had been talking about giving my new i10 some work (I had done around 400kms in 2 months considering that my office is 10mins from home). Bhagya had not been to Mysore really except for a trip with friends to Balamuri Falls a few years back. We decided within minutes to go for it, asked Mom and Dad if they wanted to join (Mom agreed since she wanted to catch up on loads of gossip with her bro - Mohan Uncle and Dad decided to pass considering his coming in will mean finding a security guy and that is such a pain at such short notice.

Started off around noon after a call to Mohan Uncle to confirm he was going to be in town and had the most painful 1km on the Mysore Road Flyover (Eid celebrations and people coming out of / going into the Mosque there combined with Metro work) meant that getting out of Bangalore took a good 2 hours and the last 100m of the Mysore Road Flyover took 45mins. Once out of Bangalore, it was the most amazing driving experience (going at  80-100kmph consistently) and switching back and forth between 4th and 5th gear through most of the journey and by around 4:30ish was near the outskirts of Mysore. A 30-45min break for lunch at Kamat Lokaruchi (Just after Channapatna) meant that I had done about 140kms in under 2 hours. 

A couple of calls for directions later was at Mohan Uncle's Farmhouse in Emerald Enclave just behind Infosys (My former company and the campus where I spent the most fun 3 months of my career during Infy Training). Since it was around 5:30 by the time we got in, had some snacks & coffee, we decided not to do any sightseeing and went for a long romantic :-) walk around Emerald Enclave. Bhagya said that it would have been more romantic if we had gone out with one Umbrella instead of two or better still without Umbrellas and got drenched/danced in the rain. I decided that with the small size of the umbrella and the fact that one of them was broken slightly, we were safer from catching a cold and spoiling the weekend with one each instead of one for both of us. How unromantic eh!!! :-(

We came back to some hot food cooked by Mohan Uncle's cook Mr. Periyaswami. We obviously weren't very hungry at 8:30pm considering we'd had a full North Karnataka Meal at 3pm and Snacks at 5:30pm. But we ate enough to ensure we didn't hurt the hosts' feelings. :-)


Please read ... Mysore Calling ... Day 2
Coming Up ...
Mysore Calling ... Day 3 & Pics

How to gamble and win in Roulette (Casino)?

This strategy is something that I'd heard off before but remembered again when my brother suggested that I try this just before we were heading out to Malaysia. Just an hour’s drive from Kuala Lumpur is Genting Highlands – the Casino Capital of Malaysia and possibly the only place in the country where betting is allowed (incidentally Malay Muslims are not allowed to gamble there since it is against their religion). While I was relatively successful at this, an obvious warning is to try this at your own risk and with capital that you are ok with losing. J e.g. Don’t gamble away your return ticket money because you feel you are going to strike it rich in the next roll of the die.

What is Roulette? 

A game where the ball rolls and falls on a coloured (red/black) number (0-36) and people bet on which number/colour is going to come next. You can bet on a individual number, a series of numbers (1-12, 13-24, 25-36, 1-18, 19-36) or a colour (red/white) or even odd/even or even the first (1,4,7 and so on) second (2,5,8, etc) or third (3,6,9, etc) column of numbers.

The strategy is quite simple.

1.       Pick a fair machine (The odds are shown on the screen and if the table has around 50% odds of black/white and a 50% odds of odd/even), you are good. Atleast my hunch on this was, the Casino is possibly not doing any manipulations on this table. I’ve heard of casinos where there are magnets placed below certain numbers electronically so that certain numbers come up.

2.       You place the smallest bet on an odds that you think has a good chance. For this example, say you bet on Red. You place 1$ on Red.

3.       Check the results of the bet

a.       If you win, which starts a new series. Go back to Step 2.

b.      If you lose, you double your bet on the same call (Red). Go back to Step 3.

4.       The only downside is that your losses can start going up exponentially (e.g. In our second visit to the Casino, we were 400Ringgit Up just 20 mins before our bus was supposed to leave and in around 5 rounds when there were effectively 10 Reds on the Trot, we ended up losing around 300Ringgit = 4500Rs).

5.       If you want to take it slower and play it safer, you can bet in the following series

a.       Place the min bet (say X). Let the total amount so far that has been bet (Y) = X.

b.      Let the incremental amount that you bet (smallest unit of currency) be equal to Z

c.       If you lose, the next bet will be Y+Z and Y is updated to 2Y+Z

6.       E.g. Let min bet be 20Ringgit and the smallest unit of currency/coin available be 5 Ringitt.

a.       Bet X=Y=20

b.      Bet = Y+Z = 20+5, Y = 20*2+5 = 45

c.       Bet 50, Y=Total amount bet so far = 95

d.      So on an so forth.

e.      Pros:

                                                               i.      Every round of betting, you will end up with more than what you started off

                                                             ii.      You have more cycles per round before you run out of the money you have put

f.        Cons:

                                                               i.      The downside of course is that the upside is smaller. :-)

7.       An obvious warning is that the Casinos will not appreciate someone coming in and playing a strategic game and winning. So do keep a low profile and if the dealer looks at you suspiciously. Just take your winnings and move on to the next table/casino. :-)

Do try this on your next Casino Trip (Kuala Lumpur, Macau, Singapore, Las Vegas, New Orleans, Atlantic City are a few places I am aware off, I am sure there are tons of them in Europe) and let me know how this worked for you.

Also see:

Top 10 Things to do/see in Langkawi
Top 10 things to do/see in Kuala Lumpur
My Malaysia Trip Details

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Top 10 things to do / places to see in Langkawi

I recently spent three days in Langkawi and here are the details. Langkawi comes from two Malay words, Lang and Kawi. “Lang” means Eagle and “Kawi” means the colour reddish brown. The island was once famous for the reddish brown eagles that hover around the island. Known for its sandy white beaches, Langkawi has numerous picturesque coastlines with crystal clear waters and gentle sea. Langkawi is blessed with sunshine all year round.

Visit Dates: 29th Dec to 31st December 2010
Companion: My Soulmate/Wife Bhagyasri
Recommended Visit/Season: Any time, the winter months (Nov-Jan) is better/cooler

Getting Around in Langkawi: Taxi is available but relatively expensive. Renting a car (80-120 Ringgit a day) or motorbike (25-40 Ringgits a day) is a popular choice. We rented a bike for around 50 Ringgits (possibly that much because it was Peak Season)

Recommended Stay: Minimum 3 days (Good Hotels cost you around 150-200Ringgit a day with Breakfast)

Top 10 Attractions in Langkawi:

1.       Beaches - Pantai Cenang, Pantai Tengah, Pantai Kok – The one we went to was pantai cenang. Supposed to be one of the beautiful beaches in Langkawi, Pantai Cenang’s beach is itself a popular attraction due to its beautiful sandy shores which face the crystalline waters and expansive horizon. Pantai Cenang Shopping is also good. You can also do a lot of water sports here including Paragliding, Jet-Skiing, Banana Boat and a host of other such games. This was fun!!! Like all other places, don’t hesitate to negotiate on the prices. You can typically bring down the prices 30-40% easily.

2.       Island Hopping – The four-hour Langkawi Island Hopping Tour included visits to multiple islands, mangrove trees, Bat Caves, Eagle Feeding Tour, Pregnant Maiden (Mountains in the shape of a pregnant lady) and a Freshwater lake (just off the sea). The name of both the island and lake is attributed to the legend of a lovely fairy princess Mambang Sari who married an earthly prince Mat Teja. Her first child died shortly after birth. She was so sad and depressed that she buried the child in the crystal clear waters of the lake. Before she returned to her celestial abode, she blessed the waters so that any childless maiden who bathed in the lake would conceive thereafter.

3.       Underwater World - Lots of marine and fresh-water fish species, water animals like penguin and seals are available to see here. Bhagya loved the Sting Ray (the one that killed  the Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin). We went in assuming that there would be Dolphin Show and were disappointed when we found out that there wasn’t.

4.       Langkawi Bird Paradise – Lots of different species of birds from all around the world are found here. You can hold a few of the birds and of course the Python J and get snaps taken.

5.       Durian Perangin Water Fall – A small waterfall that you could probably skip and not miss much. There was a Tender Coconut Vendor at the foot of the falls with really huge coconuts.

6.       Air Hangat (Hot water Spring) - After a tiring day late in the evening we spent sometime in the Hot spring dipping our legs inside the small well where there was a continuous stream of hot water.  It is supposed to be a natural healer for many ailments.

7.       Langkawi Skybridge Tour in Langkawi Cable Car – Langkawi Cable Car is supposed to be very nice (gave it a miss since we’d been to the Genting Cable Car and of course time-constraints) and gives you the complete view of the island. It takes visitors all the way up to Mount Mat Cincang, Langkawi’s second highest peak.

8.       Langkawi Crocodile Farm - Watch over 3,000 crocodiles of various species feeding and basking in the sun. We missed this too due to time constraints.

9.       Pulau Payar Marine Park Excursion – The Pulau Payar Marine Park is a series of four gem-green islets strung together to form a marine park. Comprising Pulau Payar, Pulau Kaca, Pulau Lembu and Pulau Segantang, it spans across two nautical miles and is known as Langkawi's premier snorkelling and scuba diving spot. The park is dominated by a curving of smooth virgin-white sand beach and its tropical undersea action is spectacularly exotic and colourful. Besides its below-the-waters offerings, visitors can relax on the glittery white beach or swim in the teal-blue waters.

10.   Langkawi Snake Sanctuary - a wide variety of snakes. L Missed this too. But then, after holding onto a Python in the Bird Park, this wasn’t that bad a miss, I guess. J

If you are planning your trip to Langkawi and want more details on any of these places, feel free to reach out to me by posting a comment below or in FB or on Twitter (@rhebbar).

Also see:

Top 10 things to do/see in Kuala Lumpur
My Malaysia Trip Details

How to gamble and win in Roulette (Casino)?

Top 10 things to do/see in Kuala Lumpur

I recently spent a week in KL and thought I'd share what some of the things to do / see there for reference of future travelers. Photos are shared here.

Here goes the list of Top 10 places to visit in Kuala Lumpur:

1. Petronas Twin Towers - Surely worth seeing from both near during the day and from far during the night, one of the stand-outs that symbolize the KL sky-line.
2. KL Tower - The Tallest tower in Asia and the 4th largest in the world and has a revolving restaurant that we decided to give a miss considering my partner (a pure vegetarian) wasn't a big fan of the cuisine/dishes served there and time-constraints (a bus to Singapore to catch in a few hours)
   
3. Genting Highlands - Loved this to the core. Having gotten lucky on my first trip to New Orleans (US$ 800 on a damn slot machine), I considered myself "The Great Gambler". This was Bhagya's first Casino Royale experience and she thoroughly enjoyed it. We had a real good time losing upto RM150 initially, going up 250RM on the first day and coming back on Day 2 to go RM300 up on the second and almost losing it all in the last 15-20 mins of gambling. I know it would have been more fun if we had walked away when we were around RM600 up (1RM = 14Rs). Anyway, I am wiser now and live to gamble another day. As for Bhagya, she's said that all her next few overseas trips will be to gambling destinations (Hong Kong/Macau, Singapore, Phillipines, Las Vegas, etc)
   
4. Petaling Street (China Town) - The place for getting all things cheap - be it KL T-Shirts, Fake Perfumes, Bags, Clothes, Slippers, Shoes and a million other things. We spent nearly an hour walking up and down this street and haggling away to glory. We made a few friends with shopkeepers who realized they'd found their match and acknowledged it and also made a few enemies with shopkeepers who got frustrated by our haggling styles.
   
5. Batu Caves & Murugan Temple/Statue - Supposed to have the World's tallest Murugan Statue, a good walk up to the Caves as you avoid getting attacked by the Monkeys looking for food in your bags/plastic covers/hands ends in the calm of Batu Caves. Inside there are a couple of temples and several Stalactites/Stalagmites growing in the calm and quiet of the Caves.
   
6. Little India - A little over-hyped for anyone coming from India. But might be a big hit (view of India without going to India) for foreigners. This was supposed to be inaugarated by Manmohan Singh on his recent visit there. Tons of Bolly/Kollywood posters, loud music and pretty much everything/anything Indian you want, you can find here including a couple of temples.
   
7. Sepang Circuit - Of course, the F1 circuit of Malaysia. How can you miss it? It is quite close to the LCCT (Low Cost Carrier Terminal) airport in case you want to visit. Visiting it from the City will be quite far and painful. We had to miss this ourselves, but would have loved to run around the track maybe and get a few photos.
   
8. Fish Spa - There are tons of places where you can relax and get bitten my fishes. Especially super-soothing after a long shopping experience in China Town or any other Flea Market in KL.
   
9. Kuala Lumpur Bird Park - Supposed to be the world's largest aviary. We had to miss it but we had heard great things about this park.
   
10. Bukit Bin Tang - Shopper's paradise (Berjaya Times Square and other malls), foot reflexology/body-massages galore in the area, swanky bars, night markets, the real KL. This is the place to be for all young and old. Well, the young for sure. :-)
    

Overall, we had a great time in KL and hope this is useful for anyone planning a similar trip to KL. Reach out to me if you want any suggestions or have questions.

Coming Up:
Top 10 Things to do/see in Langkawi Islands and
How to sure-fire gamble and win on Roulette? (You'll thank me and probably pay me for writing this)
How I almost didn't make it to Kuala Lumpur - The Visa Story?

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My Malaysia Trip Details

I recently spent a week+ in Malaysia primarily in Kuala Lumpur and Langkawi Islands and would like to share some details for future travelers.

Visit Dates: 24th Dec to 31st December 2010
With: My Soulmate/Wife Bhagyasri :-)
Reason: JLT (Just Like That) :-)
Other Notes: We also spent 3 days in Langkawi Islands and will describe that experience later on.
When to Visit: Any time, the winter months are probably better/cooler


Expenditure:

1. 20k per head on Round-trip tickets (probably a little on the higher side considering I flew Air Asia primarily because of the peak christmas/new-year season)
2. 1.5k per head on Visa (Visa is mandator for Indians and we got it through a consultant - original fee is Rs. 750 I believe / I have another story to tell on this. Maybe for another day)
3. 3.5-6.5k per night on a decent to good hotel
4. 10k per head on KL to Langkawi (Again Air Asia) and
   
5. Misc Expenses (Food, Shopping, Entry Tickets, etc)

A few photos (on public demand):

KL Tower

Malay Film Actress

Bhagya finds her client

Foot Reflexology - After Shopping galore

Mist-covered Genting Highlands

Coming Up:
Top 10 things to do/see in Kuala Lumpur
Top 10 things to do/see in Langkawi Islands
How to gamble and win in Roulette (Casino)?
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Guest Post: New entrepreneurship idea: Online concierge service for companies

This is a series of blog-posts based on my call to wannabe bloggers who wanted to start off their blogging career/hobby with one post and keep that going one at a time. Bargava Raman is a friend from Mu Sigma (I talk about my time in Mu Sigma here) who is currently based in Bangalore and works for Cisco's Marketing Analytics Team. Here's what he had to say about why he posted this blog here: "Been wanting to blog for a while - but indolence takes precedence as always.Havent written in a long time and only when writing did I realize I hardly know how to write :)

Do write to me if you want to post any of the themes listed in my previous post. Anyway, here goes Barg
ava on his new product/solution idea.
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Randhir posted about his travel from Bengaluru to Hyderabad when he had to book a bus at very short notice.

Just got off my worst bus ride ever – All I can say is if you are ever given a chance to choose between a Bullock Cart Ride and a ride on the Omer Travels bus, choose the Bullock Cart.

In good-ol’ days when I was working with one of the top IT companies in India in Chennai, they used to have a concierge which took care of all such personal stuff. Amongst other things that they did one of the things which they were very efficient was in getting tickets(bus, train and air) and sending the ticket to the person’s seat. All that was necessary was to send them an email with the details necessary and they would call to let you know the available modes and fares and once you confirm – its a done deal. It could be planned a month in advance or on the date of travel. They were able to offer something to the employee.

Let’s spend a few seconds to think why it would be profitable. Marketing theory talks about Segmenting-Targeting-Positioning (STP) a product. Such a concierge definitely did that pretty well.  IT professionals are price-insensitive to a greater extent than the mango-man (aam junta).  Probably due to more income at disposal at a younger age or missing home or peer pressure or could be any other outlandish reason. But that held true more then than today (College students today are shopping for iPhones – many of my friends, including me, did not think about getting a mobile until 2 years after we started working !). The employees got tickets without bothering to go and stand in line for tickets(these were days before internet became so common) and the concierge too made some money. Well – all good things come to an end eventually. With the advent of IT in travel bookings, such services have died slowly (or have become very inefficient).

Now, what is the product idea that I am thinking about? For one, anyone could target such a population with a little premium for such a service which they consider very essential (just look around IT professionals in Bengaluru-very few native folks !)

What I am toying with is to create an online concierge service (or rather – just an online travel service). The segment would be the employees working in IT companies.  A premium would be charged for booking – but not big enough for them to immediately attrite and go back to the current process of booking on their own.

Why would this succeed? This is just a hunch and not really a well-thought out plan. But given that there are not a whole lot of websites that offer customers price comparison (a la-orbitz kind of stuff for travel in India is non-existent) – this could be a good place to tie-up with various bus operators and share the premium/commission.

Is it just travel-booking? Again – I don’t have a good answer for this. But then, thinking what can be added to this, probably vacation planning. One could tie-up with hotels and give good travel packages. Hey come on – such sites exist. Dont BS? Yes – I don’t deny that.  One could use cleartrip, redbus or irctc . But something that caters to corporate with a good customer service would work like a charm. And sites like makemytrip charges a huge premium to the partnering sites.  Competition could always be useful :-)


Will company make money ??? This is something I am very sceptical about. Let’s assume a medium case scenario (worst is an eventual close-down!).  For eg: 1000 folks use the site every month and say 10,000 folks use it in year. And say – we are able to make Rs 10 profit from each customer. That translates to Rs.1,00,000 per year.  Very minimal and hardly attractive. Cost would be hosting the site – with database connectivity- charges would be around Rs.10,000 per year. Also, if telephonic customer service is to be incorporated – paying the person for phone and working hours will make it very unattractive.
As a note: Alexa reports that redbus is ranked 500th in terms of page views in India. Consider monetizing through ads – the proposed site can break even. Effort to bring in additional features(like travel, packages etc) and impact of social media can make it work bigger.

What to do? Hey – isn’t entrepreneurship all about satisfying one’s ego and not caring about money? :p

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Bargava - All I can say is an idea's success largely depends on its execution. There sure is an opportunity (supply-gap) here and you can always provide the service for a year and then exit with a sell-out to one of the existing players. If you need help brainstorming this or taking it further, let's talk. :-)
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You might want to read this post on who is a typical entrepreneur and also read my other posts on entrepreneurship

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You can also follow me on twitter @rhebbar to get frequent updates on this and my other blogs along with hear from me about other things I find interesting as well as provide feedback on this post or my other posts.

How not to travel to/from Hyderabad?

Feedback on a painful Omer Travels Bus Journey:

Just got off my worst bus ride ever - All I can say is if you are ever given a chance to choose between a Bullock Cart Ride and a ride on the Omer Travels bus, choose the Bullock Cart. :-)

How did this happen? Since I'd to make an urgent trip to Hyd and the local agent was not willing to book return journeys for some unknown reason, I went online to makemytrip and started looking for buses. Since I needed three tickets, Omer was unfortunately the only one available or atleast the one at the top of the search among the first 10-15 I looked at. I thought how bad can it be and booked it.

What went wrong? Maybe the right question should have been what went right? Well nothing. Old and creaky bus which refused to go beyond 30kmph thru most of the journey. Seats that didn't lean back and if you did you couldn't straighten. Rude ticket collector, cleaner and driver. Stopping every 10-15 mins to get someone on board despite the bus being full. Stops every 2-3 hours for a toilet break - looks like the driver had some other problems. :-) Reached home at 10:30am after starting at 9pm when typically a 9pm start gets me home by 7:00am.

On the bright side, my Bangalore to Hyderabad travel was a real comfy one with Navin Travels - another unknown name to most people I've spoken to since. But, brand new bus, courteous staff and smooth journey. And since we booked that with an agent - it did not include a online transaction fee and ended up costing us lesser. After this terrible journey, now, I'm thinking, should I go to work or just catch up on sleep? Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

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Here I come ... China!!!

Finally looks like I might in fact get to visit China before I head out of HK (maybe for good) after all.

A month or so ago, I decided to apply for the GIFT's Young Leader's Programme (YLP) since it looked like a good opportunity to visit China (Urban - Beijing and Rural China - Ningxia Province) and also an opportunity to work on a project that has a lot of benefits to the community and also a good opportunity to work with some top executives of private and public enterprises in Hong Kong.

I finally got selected for the program last week and now pending my China VISA approval. Getting a VISA to China is the challenge of the year thanks to the China Government's clampdown of Visa issuance to all and sundry including possibly a few million potential visitors to the Olympics, I should be in Beijing during the Olympics (although it is still doubtful if I'll get to see the olympics live). One thing that surely reduces my chances of getting a VISA is the fact that I am going for a project organized by an NGO - that's one word that's giving nightmares to the officials in Beijing.

If my VISA gets approved (hopefully I should know in a couple of days), it is a definite spoiler to my india travel plans and my mom's plans of getting me hitched before I head out for my exchange since I might head out to London directly instead of coming back to HK and / or going to Bangalore.

Before I wrap up this post, if you are aware of anyone or any organization who would sponsor a poor student's expenses of this trip and do its bit for a poor village in China, do pass on my contact to them or vice-versa. You can read more about GIFT at the following web-page.