The Bloomberg of Travel.
Not a travel agency. A Travel FinTech infrastructure — built to decouple the booking decision from the capital commitment. Indian consumers lock future prices via UPI, receive tickets on WhatsApp, and manage bookings as financial assets in a personal portfolio.
Overview
ViaSet is not an OTA. It is a Travel FinTech Infrastructure company — a Smart Orchestration Layer that connects UPI payments, corporate virtual cards, and global travel suppliers inside a single regulated pipe. Users pay in INR via UPI. The platform handles the rest: corporate VCC issuance, cross-border supplier payment, three-way reconciliation, and WhatsApp delivery of the ticket. All in under 60 seconds.
The core innovation is the Smart Lock — a mechanism that decouples the booking decision from the capital commitment. Users lock a future travel price by paying a small deposit today. If plans change, that deposit converts to credits at full value. If they proceed, the balance is settled at checkout. At no point does the user feel like they're taking a risk — because they aren't.
Our design challenge was significant: make one of the most complex regulatory and financial architectures in Indian FinTech feel like the simplest booking experience on the market.
The Problem
"India is a high-friction market for cross-border travel. Traditional OTA models fail because they are fundamentally misaligned with how India pays, saves, and trusts."
The Indian travel market isn't just underserved — it's actively hostile to the models that work elsewhere. Credit card penetration is low, cross-border transaction failure rates exceed 40%, a 20% TCS applies to overseas tour packages, and individual outward remittances face LRS caps that make B2C scaling almost impossible. The UX challenge and the infrastructure challenge were one and the same.
01
Card failure kills conversion
Cross-border card transactions fail at rates exceeding 40% for Indian users — OTP friction, 3DS rules, issuer risk models. Every checkout built around a card form is designed to fail in India. The only payment method that works is UPI.
02
The TCS Wall adds 20% to every booking
A mandatory 20% Tax Collected at Source applies to "Overseas Tour Packages" — effectively pricing millions of travelers out of legitimate international booking. The product architecture had to be designed around this regulatory constraint from day one.
03
Booking anxiety stops planning before it starts
Indian consumers distrust websites, distrust early commitment, and distrust cancellation policies. The mental model is: "I'll wait and see." The design challenge was making early booking feel safer than waiting — through transparency, framing, and a mechanic that genuinely eliminated the risk.
The Core Innovation
The central design challenge was naming and framing. The word "deposit" in India evokes chit funds and unregistered schemes. The word "wallet" triggers regulatory red flags. We landed on Smart Lock — a financial optimization tool that lets users secure today's price against tomorrow's volatility. The framing shifts from "paying in advance" to "making a smart financial move." Designing that shift clearly, confidently, and repeatedly across every screen was the work.
Step 01
Lock price with a Smart Deposit
Pay a small upfront amount via UPI — GPay, PhonePe, or Paytm. No card entry, no forms. The price is locked. The AI Prediction Engine shows you why now is the right moment.
→Step 02
Ticket delivered via WhatsApp
Booking confirmation, PDF ticket, and tax invoice arrive instantly on WhatsApp. Not email. Not an app notification. WhatsApp — because that's where Indian consumers actually trust what they receive.
→Step 03
Manage bookings as a Portfolio
The dashboard is called "My Portfolio" — not "My Trips." Each locked booking shows its current market value vs. your locked price, with a live profit indicator. Bookings are financial assets, and the UI reflects that.
→Step 04
Plans change? Full value, no loss.
If plans change, the Smart Lock converts to credits at full booking value. Not a partial refund. Not a voucher. The user never feels punished — and never has a reason to hesitate next time.
Explore & Discover
ViaSet surfaces a persistent navigation choice right from the header: Last Minute Deals for the spontaneous traveler, Plan Ahead for the deliberate one. The home screen then serves both simultaneously — curated sections for each intent, without making either group feel like a secondary user. Search is immediate, categorised by holiday type, and pre-populated with the destinations Indian travelers actually search for.
Hotel Details
The hotel detail page was designed around a single conversion goal: give users enough information to book with confidence, without overwhelming them. Photos, sustainability tags, amenities, a live map, verified reviews, and room-level selection are all surfaced in a single, scrollable flow — with the booking CTA persistent throughout.
The Booking Flow
The checkout was built around one constraint: users drop off the moment they see a card form. UPI is the default and dominant payment method — displayed as large, immediately recognisable buttons for GPay, PhonePe, and Paytm. The price summary shows the full Bachat breakdown — original price crossed out, early-booking price prominent, savings in rupees. Confirmation arrives on WhatsApp before the user has scrolled to the bottom of the success screen.
Rewards & Credits
Most travel loyalty programs hide their value behind points-to-currency conversions that make users feel like they're constantly losing out. ViaSet's rewards screen makes credits tangible: your balance is front and centre, each credit batch shows its expiry, your Explorer tier is clearly displayed with a visible path to the next level, and applicable hotels are surfaced immediately beneath your balance so you know exactly what your credits can unlock right now.
Design Principles
01 — Bachat-first
Indians are value-hunters, but percentages are abstract. Every savings display shows the tangible equivalent: "You saved ₹12,000 — a return flight to Goa." The Bachat widget makes value concrete, immediate, and sharable. It's not a discount — it's a story the user tells themselves.
02 — WhatsApp-first
Indian consumers often distrust websites but strongly trust WhatsApp. Every booking confirmation, PDF ticket, and tax invoice arrives via WhatsApp Business API — instantly. The app doesn't fight for trust. It outsources trust to the channel that already has it.
03 — UPI Intent
The checkout is GPay / PhonePe / Paytm as large selectable buttons. On mobile, UPI Intent deep-links directly to the user's preferred app. On desktop, a dynamic QR code appears. No VPA typing. No card entry. No form that can fail. The fewer decisions, the higher the conversion.