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HolidayIQ Reviews

Bengaluru, Karnataka

4.7/ 5

3 reviews

HolidayIQ is a prominent Indian travel platform and online holiday information portal operationally headquartered in Bengaluru, Karnataka. Founded in 2004 by Hari Nair under the initial name India Resorts Survey, the company has grown into a major travel community and recommendation engine in India, powered largely by user-generated content including reviews, photographs, and travel videos. The platform specializes in travel media, destination details, and accommodation listings across India. It provides comprehensive information on over 2,000 tourism destinations and more than 50,000 accommodation options, including traditional hotels, resorts, homestays, jungle camps, and serviced apartments. HolidayIQ operates an independent meta-search model rather than acting as a direct travel agency. It provides independent traveler reviews and price-comparison services, allowing users to discover and plan trips. Bookings are facilitated through over 1,600 partnerships with major online travel agencies like MakeMyTrip, Yatra, and Expedia, alongside traditional offline tour operators. Over its operational history, HolidayIQ expanded into digital and mobile-first solutions. The company launched a mobile-only holidays marketplace built into its Android application, aggregating activity-based leisure travel packages from curated agents. This platform allows users to filter trips based on specific activities, such as trekking, rafting, or culinary tours, transitioning its service model from destination-led planning to experience-led planning. Financially, HolidayIQ is a venture-backed private entity that has raised approximately $20 million across multiple institutional funding rounds. Key early investors included Accel Partners and Tiger Global Management. In 2010, the company temporarily merged operations with the Singapore-based metasearch engine Wego; however, it de-merged in February 2013 to resume independent operations in India, securing fresh funding from its original venture capital backers. In July 2015, the prominent Indian online travel firm MakeMyTrip acquired a minority stake of approximately 28% in HolidayIQ for $15 million to scale up hotel review capabilities. Additionally, the company has engaged in strategic expansions, such as the acquisition of the mobile development team from SourceN in May 2015 to bolster its product engineering and mobile application architecture. Legal entities associated with its broader corporate framework include Leisure and Lifestyle Information Services Private Limited in India, HolidayIQ Pte. Ltd. in Singapore, and corporate alignment with Blue SAS, a company under the lastminute.com group.