Meet the Heroes at SydneyFacile

At Hero, we love working with innovative companies that pioneer great ideas and strive to do things differently. A great example is Sydney-based travel agency, SydneyFacile who cater to a niche market and support amazing charity programs to help ‘give back’.

SydneyFacile’s founders Yan Martinez and Mickael Lechalier (pictured) launched their business 2.5 years ago, after realising there was no French-speaking travel agency catering to young French working-holidaymakers visiting Australia. SydneyFacile created a range of arrival packages dedicated to the French-speaking market.

The business quickly evolved into full service travel agency, helping customers arrive safely, find accommodation and employment and arrange onward travel across Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific.

One of the things that really sets SydneyFacile apart is its charity partnership with Buy 1 Give 1 (B1G1). Yan: “We believe that every business has the responsibility and the power to change lives by simple acts of kindness. Our partnership with B1G1 enables us to make high impact donations to many people in need”.

When customers make bookings with SydneyFacile, part of the money they spend automatically goes to helping someone in need. So far they have been able to donate 27,660 days of access to life-saving water to families in need in Cambodia as well as 145 days of computer education to children in need in Australia.

SydneyFacile’s target market is mainly French-speaking travellers, aged 18 to 35 from France, Belgium, Switzerland and Canada. In saying this, they have recently launched SydneyFacile Plus, dedicated to the over-forties, couples and families.

“We live and breathe travel!” says Mickael. “The moment we decided to head down this path, our efforts have been focused on getting to know the people behind the products we offer. Being able to tell a story to our customers is essential. Having a strong relationship with suppliers and being able to experience the products that they offer is very important. Our team has just returned to Sydney after 3 and a half weeks on the East Coast, where they met up with suppliers and partners and tried their products, filmed everything to be able to show to the community what they can expect to see and experience.”

SydneyFacile recently partnered up with Hero. Yan: “Hero is easy to use, transparent, very approachable and very responsive. It’s a one-stop-shop perfect for the travel industry. We love Hero’s e-quote option. A simple and easy way to deliver a very professional itinerary to customers. This would normally take ages to prepare. But somehow, Hero manages to put this together at the click of a button. We also love the fact that the supplier’s info is always listed in each product when finalising an order. It makes it very easy. No need to try to open each product individually to find the info, going back and forth.”

SydneyFacile is growing rapidly and Yan and Mickael couldn’t be more happy about what the company has become. “We started very small back in 2016 and look at where we are now! We are known as one of Australia’s best independent travel agencies and we’ve helped over 5,000 happy customers so far. All of our customer reviews online are 5-stars. We have a strong team who have been with us since our humble beginnings. I mean… what a fantastic achievement.”

And SydneyFacile thinks Hero can help grow their business. Yan: “Our close relationship with Hero’s team is essential for our future growth. We’re developing new products and having the right tools to be more effective as a team is essential. Being able to send regular feedback to Hero to help their development team introduce new shortcuts and booking options to streamline our agents’ and customers’ experience makes a world of difference.’’

SydneyFacile is nominated for the title of ‘Best Online Travel Agent’ in this year’s Adventure Tourism Awards Australia & NZ. Good luck Yan, Mickael and the team!