#4: Andre Fass, Founder- Tektraveler International LLC
In the fourth episode of our Impact10 series, we got talking with Andre Fass, a seasoned travel industry leader and the founder of Tektraveler International LLC. With over two decades of experience in global travel tech, Andre shares how Vervotech’s mapping technology has played a crucial role in streamlining operations and enhancing the credibility of his platform. In this candid conversation, Andre highlights why mapping is non-negotiable for any serious travel business and how his long-standing relationship with the Vervotech team built the trust that led to a successful and lasting partnership. Here are some insights from our interaction with Andre: Thanks for joining me today, Andre. Let’s start with learning a bit about you. Could you tell me a bit about yourself and your journey in the travel industry? I’ve been in the travel tech space since 1999, back when the internet was slow and online bookings were just taking off. I started in Brazil, working with one of the early online reservation systems, and later moved to Europe, gaining exposure to travel solutions across markets like Portugal, India, Dubai, and the U.S. Over the years, I’ve witnessed the evolution from basic systems to AI-powered platforms. Today, as the founder of Tektraveler International LLC, I focus on building efficient, scalable travel distribution solutions, and choosing the right tech partners, like Vervotech, plays a key role in that journey. So, what were the challenges you were facing on your online travel platform? The biggest challenge was clear: without a robust hotel mapping solution, you’re not really in the game. Duplicated listings and inconsistent hotel data create a poor user experience and undermine trust in your platform. You need accurate, clean hotel content to even be considered a serious player. I agree. Mapping is a must-have for online travel businesses these days. So tell me, why did you decide to outsource mapping instead of building it in-house? Our core focus was on creating a powerful distribution platform for our clients, not on building a mapping solution. Mapping is essential, yes, but it’s not where we want to allocate our development resources. Vervotech specializes in it, and they do it better than we ever could internally. Outsourcing to Vervotech allowed us to stay focused on what we do best while ensuring we never compromise on the quality or accuracy of hotel content. What led you to choose Vervotech’s mapping solution? Honestly, it came down to trust and relationships. I had known the Vervotech team for years before we began working together. For me, it’s not just about choosing a product, it’s about choosing the people behind it. I knew who I was partnering with, and that personal connection gave me the confidence to move forward with Vervotech. How was your experience with the implementation process? Very smooth. If you have the right tech team, implementation is quick and straightforward. Their API documentation is so well-structured that even I, who isn’t a developer, could understand it. And whenever we needed support, it was fast and effective. What key improvements have you seen since using Vervotech? The biggest improvement is operational stability. We almost never face mapping issues. It’s hard to quantify, but I’ve had customers move over from other platforms to ours because of the better hotel content quality we offer. That alone speaks volumes. And internally, not having to constantly fix or worry about mapping errors saves a lot of time and money. Is there any feature or aspect of the product that you find particularly valuable? What I value most isn’t just a specific feature, it’s reliability. Vervotech does what it’s supposed to do, and it does it consistently. That reliability means I can focus on building a better travel tech platform instead of dealing with messy mapping problems. How has your experience been with Vervotech’s customer support team? Excellent. They’ve always been fast, responsive, and easy to work with. Support is an underrated aspect of tech partnerships, but with Vervotech, I’ve always felt like we were being heard and supported. If you were to describe Vervotech’s impact in one sentence, what would it be? Let Vervotech handle your mapping, so you can focus on building what truly matters in your travel tech business. How do you see the role of mapping evolving in the travel tech space? Mapping is no longer optional; it’s foundational. In the past, some platforms could get by without it, but that’s no longer the case. With rising customer expectations and increasing competition, clean, accurate hotel data is essential. I believe that as AI and automation evolve, the need for high-quality mapping will only grow. It’s not just about displaying properties, it’s about delivering trust, clarity, and a seamless booking experience. Would you recommend Vervotech to others in your industry? Why? Absolutely. In an industry with thin margins and high stakes, having a reliable mapping solution is non-negotiable. Vervotech gives you peace of mind, improves your platform’s credibility, and saves you from costly mistakes. It’s a smart investment, no doubt about it.
Why Accurate Hotel Mapping Matters
Overview: In any online travel business, poor hotel and room mapping can silently erode revenue, credibility, and customer trust. When data is inaccurate—duplicate listings, mismatched amenities, or incorrect room types, it leads to booking errors, dissatisfied customers, and mounting support costs. These issues often go unnoticed until refund requests pile up or conversion rates dip. Accurate mapping ensures a clean, reliable inventory across channels, reducing manual work, improving user experience, and boosting operational efficiency. This infographic explores the hidden costs of bad data and highlights why precise mapping isn’t just a backend task; it’s a business-critical strategy for scaling in the travel ecosystem. Download the Infographic here: (no email required) Download Now
Why Travel Businesses Need a Second Layer of Mapping: Benefits of Using DualMap for OTAs and Accommodation Wholesalers
Let’s be honest- Relying on a single mapping layer in 2025 is a gamble! You can have a solid internal mapping engine, or pay a premium for third-party mapping services, and still, bad data finds its way in. You don’t need to imagine the outcome; you’ve already lived it: customers booking the wrong property, support teams scrambling, refunds being issued, and a brand trying to recover from another preventable mistake. The real problem? Too many platforms treat mapping accuracy as “solved” when it’s only “mostly accurate.” And “mostly accurate” is simply not good enough when you’re processing thousands, or millions, of hotel transactions across suppliers. This is why leading OTAs and accommodation wholesalers are adding a second layer of mapping validation. They’re using DualMap to introduce real-time, independent verification at the exact moment it matters most, just before or right after a booking is confirmed. It’s not just about catching errors; it’s about refusing to let incorrect mapping quietly chip away at customer trust, operational bandwidth, and profit margins. TL; DR: Why DualMap Is the Smart Layer Your Mapping Stack Needs Even the best mapping systems aren’t immune to occasional errors, and in travel, even one wrong map can lead to dozens of bad bookings, refunds, and brand damage. DualMap adds a second, real-time verification layer—pre- or post-booking—to validate supplier mappings when it matters most. It integrates easily into your existing tech stack and allows you to define smart business rules to handle discrepancies based on value, refundability, or risk. The result is fewer booking errors, reduced operational overhead, improved supplier accountability, and a stronger, more trustworthy customer experience. For OTAs and wholesalers operating at scale, DualMap is no longer optional; it’s the safeguard your hotel booking platform should have had from day one. Key Benefits of Integrating DualMap Here’s why travel companies that care about scale, stability, and brand integrity adopt this approach. Primary Mapping Isn’t Failing, but It Isn’t Foolproof Either Let’s stop pretending mapping is bulletproof. Even the best systems have blind spots: inconsistent naming conventions, duplicate listings across suppliers, mismatched geocodes, or fragmented metadata. Most of the time, the errors don’t get caught until it’s too late, until a customer walks into the wrong hotel or complains on social media about a booking they didn’t make. DualMap doesn’t replace your existing mapping; it challenges it. It forces your system to prove that what it believes to be true still holds, right when a booking is about to be made (or has just been confirmed). That’s the level of scrutiny high-volume travel platforms need. Not blind trust, verified trust. The Cost of Inaction Is Real and Compounding Let’s quantify the fallout of a single bad map. Assume- one mismatch in a popular property leads to 20, 50, or even 100 wrong bookings. Every one of those bookings demands customer service intervention, refund or compensation processing, manual supplier reconciliation, and sometimes even legal follow-up. Multiply that over weeks and across markets, and you’re not just losing money, you’re bleeding operational hours and brand equity. Worse, many of these incidents go unreported internally until patterns emerge. DualMap short-circuits this cycle by catching mapping discrepancies before they go live, or, at minimum, before the damage spreads. The savings aren’t just theoretical; they’re operational, financial, and reputational. You Can’t Scale Without Smart Guardrails Travel companies often brag about speed, faster APIs, faster booking flows, and faster onboarding. But speed without control is a recipe for failure. When your platform is pushing thousands of hotel options to users across dozens of suppliers, mistakes become inevitable unless you build smart checkpoints. DualMap gives you exactly that: a flexible, rules-based validation layer you can tailor to your business logic. Want to block bookings above $500 when confidence scores drop below 0.8? Done. Want to allow refundable bookings but flag them for post-check review? Also, doable. You define logic. DualMap enforces it. This is how smart travel companies scale by moving fast, but never recklessly. Good CX Is Built on Invisible Infrastructure Customers don’t care what mapping tech you use; they care that their booking is accurate. And every time your system gets it wrong, it becomes a branding problem, not just a technical one. You can recover money; you can’t always recover trust. What DualMap offers isn’t flashy. It’s quiet confidence. It ensures that what your customers see is what they get. That kind of consistency isn’t just good for conversion; it’s the foundation of long-term customer loyalty. OTAs that treat CX as a competitive advantage are the ones making investments like this, because it’s far more expensive to fix broken trust than to prevent an error in the first place. It’s Not Just a Mapping Tool, It’s an Accountability Layer Let’s talk about suppliers. Some deliver clean, consistent data. Others… not so much. But unless you’re tracking mapping discrepancies in real time, you’re treating all suppliers the same and absorbing the risk. DualMap changes that. It gives you data on where mismatches are happening and which supplier IDs are causing the most trouble. That insight isn’t just helpful, it’s leverage. You now have grounds to revisit SLAs, prioritize integrations, or flag low-quality feeds before they impact users. In a space where supplier data is a shared responsibility, DualMap helps you hold the supply side accountable without waiting for post-mortems. Bottom Line: Accuracy Isn’t Optional If you’re building a travel platform that’s meant to scale, you can’t treat mapping accuracy as a nice-to-have. The market is too competitive, the margins are too thin, and the cost of failure is too high. DualMap doesn’t just make your tech stack stronger; it makes your business safer. It gives your team the confidence to move fast, knowing that a second layer of validation is always watching. The smartest travel companies know it’s not enough to map at once. You need to verify. Every time it counts. FAQs Why does single-layered mapping fail? Single-layered mapping systems, whether built in-house or sourced externally, are designed to standardize hotel data
