GOeureka Meet the Team — Manraj Rai

Tell us a bit about yourself and your background

I was born in Malaysia and spent ten years in Australia where I received my tertiary education in Information Technology and Finance. I always had a penchant for business, particularly in the hospitality sector, and so I focused on that industry and set up a string of successful corporations dealing with restaurants and the supply of textiles to hotels in Singapore and Malaysia.

Tell us about your experience in blockchain and cryptocurrencies

I’ve been dabbling with cryptocurrency since 2014 and have always been intrigued by the technology behind it. Since blockchain technology is still relatively new I am on a constant learning curve, talking to people who are heavily involved with the development of smart contracts or running crypto funds, as well as keynote speakers within the industry.

How did you come up with the idea for GOeureka?

Having dealt with hotels over the past nine years I realised the inefficiencies they faced with online travel agencies (OTAs). With the knowledge I had of blockchain technology, I decided to explore how this could be used to revolutionize the travel industry. That’s when I founded GOeureka, with the aim to develop a technology-driven, comprehensive and transparent platform to benefit hotels and consumers.

What are you responsible for at GOeureka?

As the CEO at GOeureka my responsibilities include setting our strategy, vision and direction (culture, values, behaviour), managing our CXO team (this means all C Suite people — currently COO and CGO), allocating distribution of funds (by department usually), and overseeing sales, expansion and PR.

What is your favourite part of the GOeureka solution? What has you most excited?

Everything about GOeureka excites me. The fact we will be able to provide travellers around the globe with more transparent prices, enable hotels to focus their resources on providing better intrinsic value to their consumers, and at the same time create a more personalised experience for everyone, is going to be a game changer. If I had to pick though, the feature that excites me most is the interoperability of reward points. On the GO platform, loyalty programmes will actually have value again. Travellers will be able to earn enough that their points are worth redeeming, and hoteliers will be able to clear some of the liabilities off their balance sheets. Everybody benefits.

Going up against competitors such as Expedia and Priceline, what’s your strategy?

We’re starting from the ground up with 0% commissions, whereas 95% of Expedia and Priceline’s revenue is derived from commissions (with rates as high as 10–30%). It will be impossible for them to scale down to directly compete with us, and the more traction we get the less reliant hotels will be on them. Our strategy is to stick to our business model and work closely with hoteliers to ensure we really disrupt this industry and provide more value to consumers.

Have you made any interesting partnerships? Anything in the pipeline you can give us a hint at?

We already have a few partnerships in place and we’re currently trialling a demo and live transaction on the blockchain using our token with a hotel group. It’s looking great so far, and we’ll share more details once it’s completed!

Where do you see the future of the travel industry headed? How do you see it evolving?

The online travel industry for hotels specifically is ripe for disruption. OTAs have been around for about 20 years and every year they get a greater stronghold on the sector. I see more projects coming out over the next few years aimed at disrupting this, leading to a more competitive market among hotels themselves as opposed to OTAs vs hotels.

What one question do you wish we’d asked that we haven’t? And how would you answer it?

Do you think GOeureka will be able to revolutionise the online travel industry?

With the right execution and support from the travel industry, as well as collaboration with other companies in the blockchain space, I am confident we will reshape the current landscape of the online travel industry and high commissions will become a thing of the past.

About GOeureka

GOeureka is a travel tech company utilising blockchain technology to build a hotel booking platform. Their mission is to decentralise the hotel booking sector and deliver greater transparency by allowing hotels to directly connect with their customers. As a technology partner to hotels, GO aims to provide a dynamic digital experience to users and eradicate the high commission structures imposed by online travel agents. By reducing the financial commitments of hotels to third-party booking platforms, GO’s vision is to enable hotels to focus more resources on providing better intrinsic value and services to travellers around the globe.

To learn more, visit https://goeureka.io