|
|
Will invest in technologies, target small town hotels: MakeMyTrip
|
|
|
|
Top Stories |
|
|
|
|
SME Times News Bureau | 17 Aug, 2018
Nasdaq-listed India's leading online travel company MakeMyTrip Limited
will be investing in technologies such as artificial intelligence,
voice, chatbots and others and target hotels in smaller Indian towns to
grow its hotel reservations business, said a senior official on Friday.
He
said the company will be focusing on hotels in South East Asian
countries, the Middle East and European countries where Indians largely
travel.
"We will be investing in artificial intelligence,
chatbots, voice and other technologies to grow the hotel reservation
business. As per our study only 15 per cent of the hotel bookings are
done online which shows there is a huge potential," said Parikshit
Choudhury, Chief Business Officer-India Hotels, Holidays and Alternate
Accommodation.
According to Choudhury, about 60,000-70,000 hotel rooms are booked (net of cancellations) per day through the company's website.
Agreeing
that a room let vacant per day/night is a loss for the hotels,
Choudhury said the company has designed package for hotels in Tirupati
in Andhra Pradesh on day-use basis.
He said based on the results it would be expanded to other places.
Choudhury
also said the company would be offering GoStay certificates to budget
hotels to meet certain minimum quality criteria so that a guest can
expect some uniformity in services.
"As regards our overseas
expansion plans, we are looking at countries where Indian travellers
largely go such as South East Asian nations, Europe, Middle East and the
like," Choudhury said.
In a recent equity research report on
MakeMyTrip, Jefferies India said: "The Indian travel market remains a
significant long-term growth opportunity with air travel still
under-penetrated due to low income levels and online booking of hotels
and packages still much below global averages."
Jefferies said
Make My Trip is the dominant player with 60 per cent market share in air
ticketing and over 50 per cent in hotel booking.
According to
Jefferies, MakeMyTrip, over the last few quarters, has made some
progress in reducing losses and this is expected to be helped by
economies of scale benefits and further optimisation of promotion
expenses.
Choudhury said the division's cash burn has started to decline.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Customs Exchange Rates |
Currency |
Import |
Export |
US Dollar
|
66.20
|
64.50 |
UK Pound
|
87.50
|
84.65 |
Euro
|
78.25
|
75.65 |
Japanese
Yen |
58.85 |
56.85 |
As on 13 Aug, 2022 |
|
|
Daily Poll |
|
|
PM Modi's recent US visit to redefine India-US bilateral relations |
|
|
|
|
|
Commented Stories |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|