Tag Archives: Makemytrip

In response to grievances expressed by its members, the Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Associations of India (FHRAI) has put Online Travel Aggregators (OTA), MakeMyTrip and Goibibo on notice. A number of its members had brought to the association’s notice that the OTAs’ business practices which were exploitative, unethical and divisive led to predatory pricing and other market distortions that had the potential to harm both hoteliers and consumers in the long term. FHRAI has written a letter to the OTAs outlining the most critical concerns of the hotel industry which includes the issue of distortion of market price, demand for exorbitant commissions and hosting of illegal and unlicensed bed and breakfast accommodations. “One of the biggest concerns is that after securing discounted rates from a hotel, the OTAs further discount it on their online platforms without the hotel’s consent. This damages the hotel’s reputation, and also simultaneously distorts the market scenario. Ironically, the OTAs have a clause in their agreement that forbids hotels from discounting their own rates but are themselves free to do so. This disparity is not just unfair but is clearly intentional and is done with the objective of market cannibalisation,” says Gurbaxish Singh Kohli, Vice President – FHRAI & President – Hotel and Restaurant Association of Western India (HRAWI). Hotels have alleged that the OTAs charge commission that range anywhere between 18 and 40 per cent. The exorbitant commissions have been adversely impacting revenues, business and the livelihood of hoteliers. The Federation has written to MMT and Goibibo in the hope that they will understand the ground level situation of hotels. However, based on the previous experience of hoteliers whose attempts at negotiations were neglected …

MakeMyTrip has announced the appointment of Vipul Prakash as Chief Operating Officer for MakeMyTrip and Goibibo. In this role, Prakash will be responsible for developing and executing  strategic direction and priorities of the company. He joins MakeMyTrip from PepsiCo where he was last serving as Senior Vice President–Beverage Category for PepsiCo India region. Rajesh Magow, Co-Founder and CEO–India, MakeMyTrip, said, “We are excited to welcome Vipul to our leadership team. His rich experience of two decades at PepsiCo spanning geographies, deep understanding of consumer market and expertise in industry leading operational practices are truly invaluable. We are confident that his proven track record and extensive experience will extend MakeMyTrip’s upward trajectory.” Speaking about his new role, Prakash said, “MakeMyTrip is an iconic brand that has played a defining role in shaping the online travel space in India. I have been truly impressed with the company’s institutional expertise and relentless focus on serving customers better. I look forward to drive the next phase of innovation and growth through operational excellence.” Prior to joining MakeMyTrip, Vipul was associated with PepsiCo for 20 years. In his previous role, he was responsible for delivering revenue growth, share and brand equity for PepsiCo’s beverage portfolio of five brands. Vipul joined PepsiCo in 1998 and held various positions in marketing and franchise, at sector and global levels. In 2007, he relocated to the US, where he spent three years on the International Beverages Marketing team and moved to Dubai in 2010 to head the Foods and Beverages Innovation department for PepsiCo Asia, Middle East and Africa before moving back to India.

Travelport has announced that it had won a competitive tender process undertaken by Air India for the sole provision of distribution of its domestic flight content. The contract awarded to Travelport will begin to come into effect from November 2018 and be fully implemented by the end of 2019. The agreement confirms Air India’s continued deployment of Travelport Rich Content and Branding, now used by over 270 airlines. This displays airlines’ graphical content, their fares families and a full range of ancillary products. Travelport has seen a rapid expansion in India in recent years following the acquisition of business from the largest online travel agencies like MakeMyTrip, Ibibo, Yatra, EaseMyTrip and ClearTrip as well as working with the major corporate travel agencies and new entrants to the travel sector such as Paytm. Pradeep Singh Kharola, Chairman and Managing Director, Air India, said, “Air India is pleased to award this important contract to Travelport. In written submissions and in discussion with their team, the company demonstrated a clear understanding of our needs and displayed impressive technological and financial capability. As we make the switch to Travelport, we hope to be able to deliver even better value for money and a superior distribution to our customers in India and abroad.” Gordon Wilson, President and CEO, Travelport, commented, “Travelport is delighted to have been selected by Air India to provide these services. It is another welcome endorsement of our technology and our services in India. We look forward to implementing the agreement and delivering a world-class service to the airline.”

Air China and Shandong Airlines has recently organised a summer/autumn product seminar and agency awards ceremony to celebrate partnership with its agents. Highlighting the growth and performance of both the carriers, the event felicitated the airlines’ partners for commendable business output. Talking about stable flight frequency and increased connectivity, Xia Baohui, General Manager-Delhi, Air China said that the company has experienced handsome growth in India while Wang Shuai, General Representative-India, Shandong Airlines briefed about the new routes of the airlines. After the seminar, Air China’s travel partners like MakeMyTrip, Goibibo, Riya Travels, Akbar Travels and others were awarded for their outstanding performance.

A group of independent hotel owners who have their properties listed on MakeMyTrip met with executives of the Nasdaq-listed company last month, raising concerns about its commercial agreement with hospitality company OYO. Tens of hoteliers, who are also members of Delhi Hotels and Restaurants Owners Association, met MakeMyTrip (MMT) officials individually and sought assurances that its arrangement with SoftBank-backed OYO would not affect bookings and revenues independent hotels earned from the MMT and Goibibo platforms. They have given us verbal assurances that there will be no disruptions and OYO will not favoured over independent hotels,” said Sandeep Khandelwal, president of the association that claims to represent about 400-500 small and mid-sized budget hotel establishments. “MakeMyTrip has over 40,000 hotels listed on its platform, a significant portion of which are small independent establishments. The arrangement with OYO should not affect us,” said Khandelwal who owns Hotel Shri Nanak Continental in Delhi. A second independent hotel owner who has met with MMT executives said that since the announcement of the MakeMyTrip and OYO agreement, ratings and reviews of the latter’s properties had improved substantially on the online travel platform. A MakeMyTrip spokesperson, however, said the company had not negotiated with any association, but has been in touch with its partner hotels as part of its regular business outreach.  “As part of our regular business, we have frequent direct meetings with our hotel partners. We have had no meeting with any such association, nor have we been approached by one,” the spokesperson said. Source: ET Online

MakeMyTrip and Lufthansa Group have entered into a Direct Connect cooperation which gives customers access to innovative and even more competitive flight products.  Direct Connect is a distribution functionality that enables partners to use the Lufthansa Group’s API (application programming interface) for a direct access to the airlines’ inventories and rich content. The API software facilitates the travel partner to provide an enhanced customised offer for third parties. Wolfgang Will, Senior Director Sales South Asia for Lufthansa Group Airlines and Rajesh Magow, Co-founder & CEO India, MakeMyTrip jointly signed the cooperation. The new agreement allows MakeMyTrip to offer Lufthansa Group Airlines’ differentiated travel content to consumers with personalised flight products. Amongst other services, passengers can use the platform to conveniently purchase flight tickets and other services from Lufthansa German Airlines, SWISS, Brussels Airlines and Austrian Airlines without paying the 16 Euro Distribution Cost Charge applied to bookings made via traditional sales channels. “This Direct Connect Solution with MakeMyTrip is an incredible milestone in addressing the new-generation of travellers. MakeMyTrip as a Direct Connect Partner of Lufthansa Group in India is a key partner for our future developments in distribution,” Will said. “At MakeMyTrip, we are always looking to provide best content to our users to help make them best travel decisions. We are delighted to partner with Lufthansa and take another step in providing customised and more relevant offerings to better serve Indian travellers”,  said Magow.

Indian e-tail major Flipkart announced its tie-up with MakeMyTrip for travel bookings. “Through the partnership, users can now make travel bookings through MakeMyTrip’s services using Flipkart’s mobile application,” an official from MakeMyTrip said. The partnership will be rolled out with domestic flight bookings in the next few weeks, followed by hotels, bus and holiday bookings. The companies, however, did not specify the exact time frame for the rollout. “The partnership will help us reach out to an even wider consumer base through MakeMyTrip’s multiple travel booking sites — MakeMyTrip, Goibibo and redBus — and open up the online travel market significantly,” said Deep Kalra, Founder and Group Chief Executive Officer, MakeMyTrip. The tie-up also helps in furthering Flipkart’s goal of being a “one-stop destination” for all digital transactions, added Kalyan Krishnamurthy, CEO, Flipkart. The companies did not disclose the financial details of the partnership. Founded in 2007, Bengaluru-based e-commerce platform Flipkart claims to have a customer base of over 100 million in the country.

MakeMyTrip has launched its latest product for the domestic market—Made for You Holidays. Coinciding with the holiday season, these 150 holiday experiences offer a range of hand-picked escapades for discerning travellers. These domestic travel packages are specially targeted towards those who want to make the most of long weekends at destinations in Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala, Maharashtra, Karnataka and many more. Mohit Gupta, COO, MakeMyTrip, said, “At MakeMyTrip, we are bringing a balance between personalisation, authenticity and reach to offer holidays that will resonate with discerning travellers looking beyond cookie-cutter package tourism. By tracking social media, website analytics, search metrics, traveller reviews, etc., we want to align our product offerings to match what holiday goers are looking for.” Made for You Holidays is being rolled out under six themes for holiday-goers including Wildlife, Romantic, Friends & Family, Once in a lifetime, Rugged Getaways and Indulgence.

In an aim to tap more potentialities from the Indian tourism market, the Indonesian government held a two-day tourism promotion event at Ambience Mall, Delhi from December 9-10, in partnership with MakeMyTrip. “India is part of the ultimate tourism markets for Indonesia. Not only Bali, we would also promote other destinations across Indonesia for potential Indian tourists throughout the event,” said I Gde Pitana Pitana, Deputy Minister for International Marketing Development at the Ministry of Tourism, Indonesia. According to Pitana, the arrival figures of Indian tourists to Indonesia have grown significantly to 357,522 in the first nine months of this year, or 31.07 per cent higher than the figure in the same period of last year. The event was expected to help the Indonesian government to achieve its target of 456,000 Indian tourists this year, Pitana added. Source: Xinhua

MakeMyTrip and InterGlobe Technology Quotient, the official distributor of Travelport in India have forged a strategic alliance that will allow the OTA access into Travelport’s Travel Commerce Platform. Under the agreement, MakeMyTrip can expand the use of Travelport’s technology from the Ibibo Group to their other primary distribution channels starting in the second half of calendar year 2017. Gordon Wilson, Travelport’s President and CEO, commented, “India is a market with enormous growth potential where Travelport, working with our distributor ITQ, has grown in air booking terms by 14 per cent in the first half of 2017 when the GDS air market has grown by 11 per cent. Securing a partnership with the leading online travel agency in the market, with a high growth profile and tremendous track record, gives even further impetus to our plans in the country.” Deep Kalra, Founder, Chairman and Group CEO, MakeMyTrip, added, “This is an exciting time for MakeMyTrip and we are delighted to partner with Travelport and ITQ as part of our growth strategy in the service of the travelling Indian consumer.” Travelport currently boasts a portfolio of approximately 400 airlines, including the merchandised content of over half of these carriers such as fares families and ancillary products (paid seat assignments, baggage fees, priority boarding, etc). MakeMyTrip, along with its other entities Goibibo and redBus receives over 33 million visits via its desktop and mobile-web platforms and serves over 40 million mobile app active users each month.