Dear Community,

Thank you for being an important member of the Travala.com community. In light of the current COVID-19 situation, we would like to address any potential concerns you may have regarding Travala.com’s operations.

Firstly, we believe that a proactive response is the best measure to ensure that our team is safe and prepared in the event of a worsening situation. This is a priority to ensure our service offerings and communication channels will continue to operate in the same manner.

Travala.com is already a globally distributed team with members located around the world already working remotely. The Hanoi office, which houses most of our operations team, is taking all the necessary precautions to avoid any disruptions due to COVID-19. The precautions include;

Mandatory face mask to be worn in the office at all times

Hand sanitation on entry and exit to the workspace

Social distancing from non Travala employees at the offices

Work from home policy for staff using public transport or feeling unwell

International travellers to work remotely from home for 14 days

Hanoi is currently a low-risk area and we will continue to monitor any local developments.

Secondly, we want to ensure the community understands that we have several contingency plans in place to allow us to conduct business as usual for the long-term, even in a worst-case scenario.

Following our recent major investor backing and the successful equity crowdfund, Travala.com is in a very healthy position. Also, due to our cost advantages with the majority of our team based in Vietnam and an already very lean start-up structure, even without any bookings at all, we will be able to ride-out a major downturn for up to 18 months without having to seek any additional capital.

Furthermore, unlike many businesses in the travel and tourism space, we have not yet experienced a significant downturn in our bookings. However, going forward as more markets implement travel restrictions it is likely that we will witness a slow down in bookings. As part of our contingency plans, we will do everything possible to combat a slowdown in bookings. This includes the following:

Marketing – We will be concentrating our marketing activities on local escapes and staycations, as well as future bookings and aggressive discounted deals offered by some of our travel partners in top destinations around the world.

Reduced Booking Fees – We have added further incentives to book with Travala.com. As of today, our booking commissions are significantly reduced – 50% less than regular – to further bolster our value proposition of competitive pricing.

Refund Policy – Our community can book with confidence knowing that we honor refundable bookings. We are also doing our utmost for existing customers that have had their travel plans disrupted by COVID-19 to negotiate with our suppliers and the hotels directly around refunds. Our in-house customer service team is on hand 24/7.

We would like to thank the holders of AVA for continuing to support us in this time of general market uncertainty. We are confident that sooner rather than later Travala.com and AVA will come out of this situation stronger than ever. While this situation turns around, we’ll also focus on speeding up the building with our development team to get the platform ready for the next phase of significant growth.

We are committed to protecting and supporting our users and our team. We will continue to provide updates on the COVID-19 situation as needed.

If you have questions, please reach out to [email protected]. Thank you for your trust and support.

The Travala.com Team

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