Sudipta Dev – Mumbai
Findbestvenue.com is a recently launched venue search site that currently has more than 3000 listed properties in 20 Indian cities. “The objective is to cover 52 cities pan India in a year’s time,” said Sarosh Khatib, founder, Findbestvenue.com. Having an experience in hotel sales for more than two decades, Khatib stated that he understood the need to provide a solution to customers wherein they could directly connect with the venue owner, thereby making it simpler for them to look at venues, and various options in a matter of seconds.
“When somebody wants to do a conference or party or wedding, he or she depends largely on word of mouth, hearsay or past experience of a friend. They then make enquiries. The process to shortlist a venue takes two to five days. So I thought it was the need of the hour to provide a search solution giving venue options to people who are planning a party or an event,” mentioned Khatib. “As hotels and venue owners want to reach out to potential customers the site is relevant to them. We have a free listing for them. In fact, it is not limited to venue owners or hotels, but event planners, decorators, designers, beverage companies, and others,” he informed.
Though the first objective is to cover event venues pan India, it will be followed by other outbound destinations later. “The target is not only B2C but B2B. A large percentage of the target audience are conference organisers, travel agents, wedding planners, etc,” said Khatib.
The way forward is popularisation of the site through SEO, SEM and social media, coupled with direct marketing. “We will also go to the consumer directly,” said Khatib. At this stage the site offers only search options with relevant venue information, however according to Khatib, at a later stage, bookings are not ruled out. The company is using a .NET platform. “A .NET platform is scalable and is secure. It is a very robust platform which gives search results in a matter of seconds,” averred Khatib.