KOCHI: Wandermile, a year-old startup aims at taking travellers to the right places with their own experience as travellers. This is no story of three people who started a travel company. This is the story of three travellers who started a personalised system of travel for those who want to experience the non-touristy, real essence of the place. Teaming up only about 15 to 16 people, Wandermile takes an extra step forward to ensure that you don’t feel like you’re travelling with strangers, but with people you could call friends.
The three musketeers
Rekha Raja(32), Rakesh Rajan(27) and Arjun Narayanan(30), were travel buddies before they set out to make it their business venture. Rakesh Rajan worked in Cognizant for 4 years before moving into Event management. Arjun Narayanan, was a full-timer at a visual effects company before Wandermile.
And Rekha Raja worked as a marketing specialist for about 10 years across various corporates. But then, Rekha decided she should do something that would quench her thirst for travelling. “Travelling runs in my blood, for I remember my grandmother taking trips even at the age of 65, with her friends to the North,” she says.
An afterthought to a brainwave
Wandermile has three full time employees and 2 interns so far. Apart from this, they appoint local guides depending on the trips to take care of the arrangements pre trip. Rakesh, one of the co-founders, having taken over 60-70 treks within eight years, a colleague of his suggested that he could take up travelling as a career option, and that’s when the idea was planted in his head.
“Setting it up was not a huge hassle as we also had the basic infrastructural requirements for treks such as first aids, tents, etc. We used the profits that we earned through the Himalayan trek we took last year as capital, to set up Wandermile,” says Rakesh.They have invested about Rs. 1 lakh so far, and quote that the travel experience that they have is an investment of its own.
They generally plan trips after receiving an advance payment, which covers most of the financials. However, they do dig into their pockets if needed to make sure their customers are happy.
Business turns pleasure
“Initially, we used to end up spending a lot of money on various things. Later we fixed that, by being more stringent with the inclusions and exclusions of the trip. We’re much better in that aspect now,” says Rekha when asked about the initial mistakes and how they rectified it. She further talks about the logistics involved and says that the initial logistics involve event creation, marketing and getting people to confirm.
Once they have the desired number on board, they have to touch base with the local tie-ups to make arrangements. They plan the travel, food, accommodation, common gear in case of trek, like tents, cooking equipment, porters, first aid, emergency rescue equipment etc. In case of adventure activities, they have to make the bookings for the desired dates and ensure they have everything in place for a smooth flow.
Crossing borders
In terms of travel plans, they have Vietnam and Cambodia, Bhutan, Mount Everest Base Camp trek and Nepal trips, offbeat trips and treks in Himalayas, Cultural trips across South India, weekend treks and trips in the South apart from plans for a wildlife photo trip to Africa in the next year. “Our target for the future is to set up processes in our business and achieve targets with respect to number of trips, number of clients, client experience and retention. We’re setting up metrics to track progress and make ourselves better with every trip,” says Rekha.