Interview with Edgars Plešs – founder of Latvia travel startup TravelFree

Meet the Latvian startup founder Edgars Plešs who created TravelFree – an online platform for finding affordable travel deals.

Edgar is part of Travel Massive Live and is currently living in Riga, Latvia. In this Q&A, he shares a bit more about the creation of his platform and the challenges on the way.

What inspired you to create an online travel business?

It has started since childhood when I was a really big fan of Geography. For a long time, I regularly helped my friends to buy cheap tickets.

A few years ago, I established a travel agency in Latvia, but it didn’t bring me any happiness. I could not take big commissions, that’s why I could not earn enough to live. I sold the agency. Shortly after, I met a blogger and an idea came to my mind. I thought I can help people find cheap tickets in a different way – writing a blog with curated travel deals and tips.

How did you develop the business model? What challenges have you had?

In the beginning, sharing travel deals and opportunities for affordable travel was just a hobby. By the time I got more and more audience, I started to spend more time looking for income models. Then I found advertisement options, partnerships, affiliates etc.

It is not just about finding the best travel deals. More attention needs to be paid to the web design, communication, blog interface, marketing, hosting, etc.

There are many things which I did not know before I started and learned step by step. I was waking up at 6 am to work on the platform until late at night after my day job.

Each day is different. I suppose the biggest challenge is finding good and not so obvious deals – it is a hard job. It may look simple and easy, but sometimes we spent hours looking for one single deal. There are hundreds of ways to find cheap deals, it is a big manual mechanism and requires a lot of knowledge and concentration.

What are your favorite affiliate programs and why?

The best affiliate programs are those who pay attention to service. There are many programs that just exist but do not take care of their affiliates.

If I have to mention the best ones it could be Skyscanner and HotelsCombined, for example. They care about the customer, try to communicate with you and reply frequently if there is an issue.

What are some emerging new destinations in Europe that your visitors are traveling to?

For the last two or three years, Iceland is in high demand. People travel there more often each year, at the same time airlines are opening new routes to many new destinations. More and more people are interested in low-cost flights, like Ryanair, WizzAir, Easyjet or Norwegian.

Some emerging new destinations are Iceland, Svalbard, Balkans, Canary Islands.

Some of the routes are seasonable, like Palma de Mallorca which was a very popular destination this summer.

If you could have dinner with the CEO of any travel company in the world, who would it be and why?

I think it would be Brian Chesky from Airbnb. They have changed the way people see the world. It is a big company and millions of people use Airbnb not because hotels are bad but because they want to know the local culture better.

In most cases, the hosts are very nice and friendly. Staying in their homes gives you the opportunity to experience their habits and culture. There is nothing easier than asking them about their recommendations – where to go for a trip or where to go to eat.

I think Airbnb founders made a fantastic platform for travelers to connect with locals.

Connect with Edgar on Travel Massive and follow TravelFree on Facebook and Twitter.