The platform, available at bus.travelstart.co.za, will help customers save time and money by comparing bus tickets from competing companies and serving the cheapest fare for a return or one-way route within South Africa, or to neighbouring countries.
The platform lets customers search, book and pay for bus travel from numerous suppliers such as Greyhound, Eldo Coaches, Citiliner and Intercape. Customers can book tickets for up to ten passengers in a single booking and can filter search results by the bus company, coach class and price. Payment can be made by credit card (Visa, MasterCard, American Express) at the time of booking, or at Pick n Pay stores countrywide.
Travelstart’s Managing Director Jerome Touze said bus booking complements existing online travel booking tools such as flights, hotels, vehicle hire and holiday packages. “We’re really excited to bring a quality bus booking platform to the market. For 13 years, air travel has been our focus, but bus transport also fits with our mission to make all modes of travel simpler and more accessible for everyone,” said Touze.
“This is the first development to follow our acquisition by Travelstart. The power of the Travelstart brand coupled with the convenience of paying at Pick n Pay will make travel simple for exciting new markets,” said FlightSite Managing Director and bus.travelstart.co.za technology partner Rian Bornman.
The most popular route for South African bus travellers is Johannesburg to Durban. Regionally, the most in-demand route is Johannesburg to Harare, Zimbabwe.
