Treebo acquires events and activities discovery platform Events High

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Treebo Hotels on Thursday announced that the company has acquired Events High, a marketplace for experiential events and activities, in an attempt to expand its offerings beyond stays.

Siddharth Gupta, chief executive at Treebo, did not disclose the details of the deal, but, said Events High, with 15 members, will continue to operate as a separate entity. According to Gupta, integrating the services of EventsHigh is in line with Treebo’s aim to “offer delightful experiences to travellers.”
About half of Treebo’s customers are business travellers and the rest, leisure.

“We are now making another move in the same direction by offering curated local events and activities to our customers through Events High. Experiencing these local activities is a core part of people’s travel plans. More so now than ever before, people are keen to buy ‘experiences’ not ‘things’.

Moreover, with nearly hundred percent offline bookings, fragmented and unorganised supply, and yet a large demand among travellers, this industry has similar characteristics to what the hotel industry had 10 years ago,” Gupta said in a statement.

Events High, backed by Axilor Ventures, was launched in 2016. Founders Nikesh Garera and Arvind Batra will continue to lead the operations at the form post the acquisition. Events High clocks 1.5 million unique visitors every month.

It is not just Treebo that is offering events and experiences to customers. Airbnb launched a similar category last year. TripAdvisor-owned Viator, GetYourGuide and Klook are among some of the global businesses in this segment. Closer home, online travel portal Cleartrip also launched similar services in 2016.

Treebo, which has raised $57 million since inception in 2015 from the likes of Matrix Partners, SAIF Partners and Ward Ferry Management, competes with Goldman Sachs-backed Fab Hotels and Softbank-backed Oyo.

Oyo recently launched a holiday packages section to expand beyond hotel bookings and expects to get 10 percent of its revenue through this business in about five years.