After raising a massive $800M (approx €677M) in its Series E round of funding from SoftBank and Tiger Global, London-based fintech unicorn Revolut has, today, launched a new travel product – Stays. This new product is to help customers book holidays after being in lockdown for almost 18 months.
A brief about Stays
Stays is the new travel feature from Revolut. Currently, the app offers its customers in the UK, exclusive rates on accommodation, no booking fees charged by Revolut, and the ability to browse and book everything from within the app. It also offers discovery options ranging from bargain B&Bs to unique, luxury lodges across the globe.
Speaking on the development, Marsel Nikaj, Head of Savings and Lifestyle at Revolut, says, “As the world begins to cautiously open up, we know everyone is desperate to get away whenever they can – whether it’s to Margate or Mallorca. We’ve built Stays to make it easy for people to find and book their perfect break in their ideal destination. After 18 months of endless restrictions and lockdowns, we want to give people more and make their money travel further.”
Revolut is offering a 10 per cent instant cashback on bookings in order to help customers save their money and spend when they’re on holiday.
Besides the UK, Revolut is also planning to gradually roll out the feature to customers across Europe and the US in the coming months. Moreover, the company is looking to add more useful travel related products such as flights, car hire, travel experiences, to make it the go-to destination for all travel decisions.
Revolut’s survey on travelling
With Revolut users almost doubling their savings over the course of the pandemic, a nationwide urge to splurge in global and exotic locations is evident. Now, with the launch of a new travel feature, Revolut has surveyed 12,000 of its customers across 10 countries to analyse their attitude towards travelling in the coming months.
Though there are still some uncertainties for traveling, according to Revolut data, about 72 per cent of Brits can’t wait to go abroad as soon as they’re able to. And only 6 per cent of the respondents have no plans to travel abroad at all.
Besides the Brits, the same goes for holidaymakers all over Europe with 84 per cent of the French and 72 per cent of the Spanish also desiring an international vacation.
As mentioned earlier about the 10 per cent instant cashback, Revolut aims to save the average customer £69 a year. And according to the company, this will be its biggest giveaway as it will see the company give £70M to UK customers booking through Stays.
In a statement, Revolut mentions, in 2019 – “the last year of normal travel”, the average Revolut user spent nearly £690 on accommodation, £149 on flights, and on average, spent £950 like a local abroad, using a Revolut card and its travel features.
UK travelers during pandemic
Despite a strong urge to get away, the survey says, over half of the UK (51 per cent) plan to only travel to destinations with a good healthcare system. This is because Brits are still Covid-conscious, especially with regards to travel, as 63 per cent of respondents in the UK plan on being fully vaccinated very soon.
However, almost half (48 per cent) of UK respondents also wish to stay in a hotel that follows Covid safety requirements and a quarter (24 per cent) plan to rent a private apartment or self-contained villa.
A brief about Revolut
Founded in 2015 by Nikolay Storonsky and Vladyslav Yatsenko, Revolut is a financial services company that specialises in mobile banking, card payments, money remittance, and foreign exchange. It includes a prepaid debit card, currency exchange, and peer-to-peer payments.
Using Revolut can show customers exactly how much they are spending each month on things like restaurants and groceries, can set monthly spending budgets for these categories and manage fees for subscription services, send and request money from friends instantly, and round-up their card payments and build-up their spare change.
One of Revolut’s key features includes conversion from one currency to another based on interbank rates with no fee.