2. About Us:
The Bravofly Group is the leader in Europe in the travel, tourism and leisure industries.
Set up in May 2004 on the initiative of its two founding members, the Bravofly Group is today one of
the main European players in the online travel industry. The sites are available in 6 languages (soon to
be 8) and allow the consumers to book flights, package holidays, hotels, car hire, cruises, ferries and
restaurants.
Bravofly uses the latest technology to provide consumers with simple, customised solutions. By
integrating all the features into one system, Bravofly allows customers to choose and book the trip they
want at the best prices in an easy and quick way.
In particular, the innovative flight search platform used by Bravofly is the only system in Europe that
allows consumers to search for, compare and book flights offered by both low cost and traditional
airlines in a simple, transparent way, offering unique features such as searching by price.
The Bravofly Group's headquarters is in Chiasso, Switzerland.
3. The Mission:
• To offer consumers the possibility to choose and book their trips with the best price for their needs.
• To ensure ease of use, security and support, both while choosing and after the purchase with
innovative technologies.
• To be the leading site in Europe for information and booking for all leisure services, beginning with
travel.
THE WEBSITES
Searching for flights, hotel bookings, car rental and package holidays
Volagratis.it , Bravofly.com , Bravofly.co.uk , Bravofly.fr , Bravofly.de
Bravofly.ch, Bravofly.es, Bravofly.at, Bravofly.ru
Tour Operators for package holidays Exclusive hotels for discerning travellers
Viaggiare.it , Viaggiagratis.com Tablethotels.it
Cruise bookings The search engine for ferries throughout the
Crocierissime.it, Bravocroisieres.fr Mediterranean
Traghettigratis.it
Social network for restaurant reservations Flight bookings for agencies and corporate travel
2spaghi.it Volagratispro.it , Volagratis.biz
4. Milestones:
2004 Foundation with capital of €50,000, two founders and one employee
Sale of first flight
2005 Introduction of traditional flights (CRS)
First internal customer service with four people
2006 Bravofly translated into four languages for the European market
2007 Introduction of the search engine for hotels
Completion of the internationalisation process and a new office in Switzerland
2008 Introduction of the “Find a Deal” and “Search by Price” features
Start of the sale of car rental services
2009 Start of the sale of package holidays
Launch of the sale of the combinations of flights from different airlines
2010 Start of the sale of cruises in conjunction with Crocierissime.it
Launch of the first App for iPhone and iPad
Acquisition of an interest by AXA Private Equity and other financial investors
Launch of the sale of Dynamic Packages (“Pacchetti Dinamici”) on Viaggiare.it
Introduction of the Fly Box onto the Italian market
2011 Crocierissime.it, 2spaghi.it e Traghettigratis.it become part of the Bravofly group
Entrance into Russian market with Bravoavia.ru
Launch of application for Nokia
Development of Volagratis Pilot in collaboration with Google
5. The Numbers:
Bravofly sites are growing rapidly in Europe with a strong position in Italy and France and
emerging positions in the United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, Northern Europe, Spain and
Russia.
Each month, the group sites as a whole generate:
Over 7,000,000 individual visitors per month
Over 60,700,000 page views
Over 15,000,000 flight searches
And there are:
Over 3,500,000 registered users and subscribers to the Weekly Newsletter
350,000 users who have authorised the sending of messages to their mobile phones
6. Flights:
Bravofly offers a single, simple search and booking system for over 400 airlines
(including both low cost and traditional carriers): with a single search, you can book
a flight. On the home page, all you need to do is insert your departure airport,
destination and the date and the best price for your chosen period is displayed
immediately.
After the search, you can see a
table with the best value
combinations: if you can be
flexible on dates, often just
moving your departure or
return by a few days can save
you money.
7. Flights, the filters for searching:
For a more targeted search, filters have been created which, when used together, make it possible
to:
•Identify the maximum price you are willing to pay for a flight that suits your needs
•Choose the time of day you prefer to depart
•Choose the most convenient departure and arrival airports
•Select an airline
•Where possible, select the class of travel and even special territorial
continuity tarriffs.
8. Flights, the “Find a Deal”:
Those in search of the cheapest flight who can be flexible will find the Find a Deal tool extremely useful.
Bravofly has developed this to allow everyone to find the cheapest travel solution by processing over 15
million searches carried out every month on Bravofly sites.
Alternatively it is possible to select the maximum amount that you wish to spend for your flights in order to
decide where and when you could fly within the means of your budget.
9. Combined flights and special offers:
Bravofly is the only search engine that offers users flights where the outward and return
journeys are operated by different airlines. This is a distinctive feature of Bravofly that
multiplies the travel options available to end users, who can then take their pick from many
possibilities according to timetabling or budget requirements.
Bravofly has a whole section dedicated to Special Offers. In this section, currently only
available on Volagratis.it, you can see all the best deals Bravofly makes available to its
customers thanks to exclusive arrangements with the major airlines. Any of these Special
Offers will also be visible when carrying out a normal search on Volagratis.it if you have chosen
to depart a few days either side of the offer dates.
10. Package Holidays:
The latest product, which at the moment has only been developed for the Italian site, has an area
dedicated solely to the best offers from the major tour operators. In September 2010 Viaggiare.it
introduced the Dynamic Packages (“Pacchetti Dinamici”): a new system which allows the customer
to create their very own tailor-made package by combining flights and hotels to suit their needs.
Volagratis is used in order to find the best flights, where there are offers from over 400 airlines,
both low cost and traditional, whilst for the hotels, Viaggiare.it collaborates with Booking.com and
Venere, as well as working directly with hotels in order to offer even more beneficial rates.
11. Hotels:
On Bravofly sites, you can choose the hotel for your leisure or business trip from over 250,000 hotels
worldwide offered by the leading hotel reservations providers on the Web (Booking and Venere and
others with exclusive contracts chosen by Bravofly).
Bravofly also offers advanced search methods for hotels, allowing users to find the most suitable hotel
very easily. You can choose a hotel based on parameters such as price, distance from the centre or
other points of interest in the city, description of rooms and services. Reviews from other users who
have already stayed at these places and have expressed an opinion about the service offered are also
available.
12. Car Hire:
In order to organise your trip quickly and easily, Bravofly offers users the possibility to book a low
cost rental car from major providers such as Sixt, Europcar, Avis and Hertz with the lowest price
guaranteed, discounts of up to 15% and other services such as a worldwide assistance telephone
number and a small deposit at booking time.
13. Tourist Guides:
This section of the website offers free downloadable tourist guides of the most-searched
destinations. The guides are both useful and easy to read, with specific tips about the city,
events, advice about where to eat and sleep and the beauty spots.
14. Cruises:
This section of Volagratis.it (only on the Italian website), runs in collaboration with Crocierissime.it,
comparing the cruises with the best offers: unmissable discounts with Costa Crociere, MSC
Crociere, Royal Caribbean, Louis Cruises and all the major cruise companies, from the
Mediterranean to the Caribbean.
15. The package holidays of Viaggiare.it:
Viaggiare.it is one of the largest travel agencies in Italy that offers users a simple way to book their
package holidays. Viaggiare.it makes it possible to search and compare package holiday offers from
many of them major tour operators and build customised and convenient flight and hotel solutions.
The site offers other information, including tips and content generated by the user, thanks to the
collaboration with Trip Advisor. Viaggiare.it uses the latest technology to make it possible to search
and compare package holiday offers from many of them major tour operators and build customised
and convenient flight and hotel solutions.
The Volagratis.it search engine of package holidays supports Viaggiare.it.
16. Crocierissime.it:
The first site dedicated to
cruises in Italy, boasting
contacts with the largest
Italian and foreign cruise
companies: Costa Crociere,
Msc Crociere, Norwegian
Cruise Line, Royal
Caribbean and others, in
order to offer the Italian
market a complete
overview of the world of
cruises, from 3-star ships
to the most luxurious
vessels.
A site that is very easy and
fast to use, thanks to a new
search engine updated
daily to ensure the latest
offers from cruise
companies are always
available.
17. 2spaghi.it:
This is a social network (only available in Italian) where users share their favourite restaurants by
voting for them and adding reviews and comments, deciding the success of the restaurant itself in the
eyes of the community and also offering the opportunity to book. 2010 also saw the publication of the
Spagoguida, the first restaurant guide originating from the Web, with comments and reviews from
2spaghi.it users.
18. Tablethotels.it:
The product portfolio also
includes TabletHotels.it (only
available in Italian), where you
can book a unique selection of
luxury hotels that stand out
for their originality, comfort,
design and atmosphere. The
hotels listed on the site have
been carefully selected and
are mainly luxury boutique
and design hotels from all over
the world.
19. Traghettigratis.it
Traghettigratis.it (only
available in Italian) is the
traveller’s search engine with
deals, information and tips on
booking ferries throughout the
Mediterranean. To search for
ferries, the innovative Planny
platform offers exclusive
features such as searches by
price and filters by time of day
and ferry company.
Traghettigratis.it features
major companies such as
Moby Lines, Grandi Navi
Veloci, Grimaldi Lines, SNAV
and many others.
20. VolagratisPRO.it e Volagratis.biz
Designed for travel agencies, Volagratis PRO offers a free unique and professional system to
operators within its sector, which allows them to obtain commission on flights, hotels and
package holidays as well as many other useful features.
Volagratis BIZ offers a system that responds to the needs of any agencies who would like to
reduce the costs of business travel whilst at the same time maintaining a high standard of quality
and professionalism.
21. Bravofly Applications:
Since June 2010 Bravofly has also offered the ability to search, compare and book flights to “mobile”
users. In the iTunes App Store you can download the Bravofly applications for the iPhone and iPad,
which in a short space of time allow you to search, use filters, choose your preferred flight, look at
all the details and complete the booking in a simple and secure way.
The application is also available for the Nokia phone in the Ovi Store.
Recently, thanks to our collaboration with Google, Bravofly
launched the application Volagratis Pilot. Available free from the
Chrome Web Store, Volagratis Pilot is a game that allows
participants to put themselves in the shoes of a pilot. This
application is good fun and easy to use and is another
demonstration of the efforts of Bravofly in always wanting to
keep up with the times.
22. Social Network of Bravofly:
Bravofly talks openly with all its users, even
through some of the most diverse social
networks.
The Facebook Volagratis page is growing
rapidly into an enormous success. With
more than 50,000 “likes”, the fan page is a
place to meet clients, for those with a
passion for travel to discuss their
experiences and to discover the latest news
from Volagratis. Recently other features
have been introduced that allow fans of
Volagratis to book their own flight, hotel or
package holiday directly through Facebook.
Facebook fan pages have also been opened
for Bravofly.fr, Bravoavia.ru and
Bravofly.com.
Bravofly can also be found on other major
social networking sites such as Twitter,
Flickr, LinkedIn and Foursquare.
23. L’osservatorio:
The Volagratis Flight Observatory (“L’Osservatorio Volagratis”) conducts research into the
whole flight, holiday and cruise sectors, analysing the phenomenon of choosing and
purchasing flights, both in its quantitative dimensions and in the interpretation of the
scenarios and trends of this new way of travelling, in constant evolution.
The Observatory (only in available in Italian) makes use of a large amount of data extracted
from 15 million searches made each month by Bravofly site users, and was set up in 2004 as a
result of the need to provide users and the media with accurate, detailed information, as well
as an overview of the low-cost phenomenon.
Articles from the Observatory can be found at the following address:
www.osservatorio-volagratis.com