consumer-travel
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Bloom Spent a Year Building a Hotel With No Guests - Now It Wants 100,000 Rooms
India's yellow hotel chain made the unfashionable choice to perfect its operating system before chasing flags on maps. The bet produced a profitable ₹357.5 crore business - and a field guide for founders who would rather earn the right to scale.
Cruisebound
Cruisebound is a digital-first online travel agency that makes cruise research and booking as simple as buying a flight. The platform lets travelers compare more than 27,000 itineraries across roughly 19 major cruise lines, lock in transparent prices with no booking fees, hold cabins free for 24 hours, pay in installments, and earn Cruisebound Cash rewards - all backed by a hybrid model of self-service technology and human cruise experts. Founded by alumni of Rocket Travel (a Booking Holdings company), it targets a new generation of cruisers with an e-commerce experience instead of the traditional quote-request phone call.