From Treebo’s Hero app to Sabre’s cutting-edge technology, and GoIbibo’s ‘Secret’, we have curated the best of this week’s travel-tech launches for you.

Treebo Hotels launches mobile app ‘Hero’ to tap traditional offline sales channels

Treebo Hotels announced the launch of a new mobile app called ‘Hero’ aimed at tapping into the traditional offline sales channels, thereby expanding its customer base and creating new avenues for sales. With the Hero app, Treebo aims to target intermediaries like auto-rickshaw and cab drivers, individual agents, small shopkeepers, and others who typically operate at airports, railway stations, and bus stands. These intermediaries often help customers arriving in the city with their travel bookings, since many of these customers do not make prior bookings.

By bringing this traditional offline activity into the formal online space through ‘Hero’, the brand targets to drive higher awareness about its quality services and amenities through the direct recommendation of these intermediaries. It will thus allow Treebo to tap into a new customer segment that has conventionally transacted with and trusted these offline intermediaries only.

Commenting on the launch, Sidharth Gupta, Co-founder of Treebo Hotels said, “As a hotel chain we have always used both online and offline channels to drive sales for us, and we have deployed technology to drive convergence between them. With the launch of Hero we are tapping into another potent sales channel – the local offline intermediaries. We are not only excited about welcoming a new set of travellers who book through such intermediaries but also about creating opportunities for such micro entrepreneurs to enhance their incomes and become part of the digital economy.”

Goibibo launches ‘Secret Hotels’ feature for last-minute hotel deals

Goibibo unveiled a new feature on its platform – “Secret Hotels”, which will help customers who are looking for hotels at the last minute and have a set budget. The ‘Secret Hotels’ feature requires the customer to provide basic intents such as location, check-in date and basket of standardised amenities. Basis the options filled in by the customer, hotels are selected by an automated Goibibo algorithm that picks the best property suited for customer’s needs at their chosen price.

Image source: Inc42

Commenting on the launch of Secret Hotels, Sanjay Bhasin, COO, Goibibo, said, “We want to consistently provide more choice and add to flexibility of booking hotels for our customers on Goibibo. With ‘Secret Hotels’, we aim to get our users a hassle-free hotel booking experience at special prices, even as they make last minute bookings.”

Sabre launches industry-first pricing technology to deliver end-to-end dynamic pricing strategy

At the Aviation Festival in London, Sabre Corporation launched Sabre AirVision Dynamic Availability and Sabre AirVision Fares Optimizer, two next-generation pricing solutions that uncover new revenue opportunities by enabling airlines to proactively address rapidly changing market conditions in real time. Underscoring the launch announcement, Etihad Airways and Aegean Airlines will be the first Sabre customers to implement the solutions.

“Pricing is one of the most complex issues in the aviation industry, and airlines are under immense pressure to adapt prices in line with constantly changing market conditions,” said Dave Shirk, President of Travel Solutions, Sabre. “Success requires pricing and revenue management technology that will not only push boundaries, but truly equip airlines for the next frontier. As part of our commitment to enable the digital airline of the future, our dynamic pricing solutions give airlines the intelligence needed to compete and grow revenue today and well into the future. This type of innovation can only come from close collaboration with leading airlines who help imagine the future alongside Sabre.”

Sabre AirVision Fares Optimizer empowers airlines to strategically adjust their fares based on real-time market data. It recommends pricing structures based on customer segmentation and competitor price checks, and generates fare recommendations by estimating each customer’s potential willingness to pay. Then, for more tactical adjustments, Sabre AirVision Dynamic Availability – a proven big data solution – enables airlines to quickly respond to ever evolving market dynamics. These two solutions, coupled with Sabre’s shopping data and Revenue Optimizer technology, empower airlines with a complete pricing and revenue management offering.

The new solutions are part of a broader strategic decision by Sabre, which announced earlier this year that it would build a new Digital Commercial Platform that delivers end-to-end personalized retailing for airlines.

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Goibibo has launched a new WhatsApp integrated solution, allowing its users to sign-in to Goibibo on mobile web via WhatsApp. This first-of-its-kind Whatsapp login authentication will help mobile web users to Log In without needing to remember password, keying in OTP or Mobile Number – rendering a convenient, seamless experience.

Anshuman Bapna, Chief Product Officer, Goibibo said, “We are a mobile-first company and we want to leverage the mobile ecosystem to its fullest to make online travel booking experience even more convenient. Given the ubiquitous usage of Whatsapp among Indians, it was a natural choice for us to build this feature to help people access the platform without the fuss of remembering complex passwords and punching in OTPs.”

This new feature will help Goibibo further enhance qualitative services for its consumers who have come to expect ease and superior user experience. Goibibo currently offers features like seat and meal selection, auto check-in and hotel reviews and images collection through WhatsApp built-in Android APIs.

Indian startups are now increasingly using social messaging app WhatsApp to do business, riding on its huge user base. WhatsApp has nearly 200 million active users in India, as of February 2017, accounting for 16% of its global user base, according to Statista, an online research portal.

The WhatsApp flight seat selection feature introduced by Goibibo in January this year was for flight booking and seat selection and gave travellers the ability to choose their desired flight seat just on Whatsapp.

In a separate development, WhatsApp announced that it is launching its first revenue generating product in India for enterprises to interact directly with customers which will debut with Goibibo’s parent company MakeMyTrip.

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India’s largest OTA MakeMyTrip has announced that the company is raising USD 330 million through share sale to undisclosed investors as well as Ctrip and Naspers’ arm MIH Internet. It has entered into definitive share purchase agreements for a placement of its ordinary shares. This is expected to generate gross proceeds of USD 165 million. The company will issue 4,583,334 ordinary shares in the aggregate to investors at a price of $36 per ordinary share.

Along with this, MakeMyTrip also entered into share purchase agreements with Ctrip for the issuance of its ordinary shares to Ctrip and MIH Internet for the issuance of the Company’s Class B convertible ordinary shares to MIH. The transactions will generate an additional $165 million of gross proceeds for MakeMyTrip. It will issue 916,666 ordinary shares to Ctrip at a price of $36 per ordinary share and 3,666,667 Class B Shares to MIH at a price of $36 per Class B Share. The Class B Shares issued to MIH will be convertible into ordinary shares on a one-to-one basis.

The transactions with Ctrip and MIH Internet and the placement are expected to raise USD 330 million and expected to close around coming Friday (May 5, 2017). MakeMyTrip plans to use the funds for business expansion, strategic investments, technology and product development, marketing and promotions, working capital and general corporate purposes.

Ctrip invested USD 180 million in MakeMyTrip early last year and after the merger with Ibibo Group, held 10 percent of the combined entity. Naspers and Tencent held 40 percent of the combined entity after the merger last year. It was recently reported that MakeMyTrip is eyeing more investments in India including an investment in budget hotel aggregator FabHotels. Moreover, MakeMyTrip has previously expressed its intention to go bullish on online hotel booking. Expect more such activity by MakeMyTrip as it tries to grab a bigger piece of India’s travel market.

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It was reported previously that MakeMyTrip is keeping an eye out on smaller companies to further strengthen its position in the hotel space. The merger with GoIbibo brought two rivals with different strengths together and as the integration of the two approaches completion, they are out again looking at ways to grab a bigger piece of the online travel space in India.

It is now reported that MakeMyTrip is looking at investing in the budget hotel aggregation space and is considering FabHotels for the same. The segment gained popularity in the year 2015 after OYO Rooms raised a large round from Softbank. This was followed by a large number of same or similar models evolving not only in India but in Southeast countries with similar accommodation challenges as well. While the promise was convincing, and at one point it appeared that they will create threat for the budget hotel listings on OTAs, the aggressive race for scale didn’t help. The major OTAs hit back at OYO and Zo by removing their listings citing overlapping listings as a reason.

TOI reports that MakeMyTrip was involved in conversations with FabHotels and Treebo Hotels and may be finalising an investment in FabHotels. Founded in 2014, FabHotels operates in the same space as Oyo Rooms and lists 19 cities on its website. MakeMyTrip has its own series of quality budget listings called Value+ GoIbibo introduced GoStays. It will be interesting to see how the association with FabHotels is leveraged if it indeed goes through while not causing any damage to the current listings.

Treebo recently stopped listing on the two OTAs claiming that they were charging much higher commissions compared to their international counterparts and that wasn’t sustainable for Treebo. It is possible that together they could look at the option of listing FabHotels partner properties exclusively on the two OTAs. The domestic OTAs are also under pressure from international OTAs like Booking.com and Expedia.

MakeMyTrip is also pushing into the alternative accommodation space with RightStay. Along with this, it also has investments in metasearch and review platform HolidayIQ and holiday package marketplace GoFro.

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In what could possibly be one of the biggest developments in the online travel ecosystem of India, two of the leading OTAs have announced to combine their businesses. MakeMyTrip has said that it would buy rival ibibo group to capture a large share of the fast growing online travel space. The transaction would combine the two under MakeMyTrip (NASDAQ: MMYT) creating one of the leading travel groups in India.

The deal covers all brands of the Naspers and Tencent backed ibibo group that include Goibibo, Redbus, Rightstay and Ryde. It is reported that MakeMyTrip has agreed to buy ibibo’s travel businesses for USD 720 million in stock.

After this development, MakeMyTrip founder Deep Kalra will continue to be the group chief executive and executive chairman of MakeMyTrip. Rajesh Magow will continue to be the CEO India of MakeMyTrip. Ashish Kashyap, founder and CEO of ibibo group, will join MakeMyTrip as co-founder and President of the organisation.

“Today’s announcement is a significant step forward for the rapidly growing travel industry in India. We expect this deal to create an even more scalable business with the expertise to transform the booking experience for Indian travellers. I am delighted to be leading such a strong team in our next chapter of high-growth in this dynamic industry,” said Deep Kalra, chairman and Group chief executive of MakeMyTrip in a statement.

Naspers and Tencent will be issued new shares in MakeMyTrip. Upon closing of the transaction, they will own 40% stake in the combined entity and contribute proportional working capital. Ctrip will have 10% stake in the combined entity.

Source: Reuters

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The FICCI auditorium witnessed the Travel and Hospitality Tech Conclave 2016 fold with a huge round of applause from the leaders and participating organizations from the travel and technology sector. The two-day event saw some stirring discussions and prime concerns being debated upon. The panel discussion on the nuances of Content Marketing was exhilarating and the mojos had some key points to give away.

The panel included Sesh Seshadri, Director at Lonely Planet India; Aashish Chopra, Head Content Marketing at ixigo; Bhawna Grover, Head of Content at Goibibo and Dolly Bhasin, MD, SPH Consultancy & Eservices Pvt. Ltd. They gave insights on how content can be leveraged to promote brand name in the travel sector.

1-The art of storytelling

From a traveller’s perspective, everything comes down to destination. If the destination is worth it, he would undergo umpteen amounts of discomfort to get there. Similarly, if the content narrates the reality; the stark truth, so much so that if the experience gathered by just reading the content is enough an inspiration to pack your bags, then the mission has been accomplished.

Trying to sell the product isn’t the way to go. Curated content is a destination for the traveller. If they don’t relate to the brand, they would not opt it out. Selling dreams, experiences and adventures should be the core focus of the travel brands. And only good deliverable content could make it happen.

2-Attention of the consumer is all you have

Content marketing is a growth hack in this age. Travel brands should experiment and go beyond the usual marketing strategy. Platforms like Facebook and Twitter are huge and chaotic. Driving the right content and the traction that it should attract seems like an uphill task on these social media platforms. However, if one captures the attention of the consumer, some hope of getting that content through him looks certain.

Share-worthy content is the prime key rather than consumable content in driving campaigns forward. Real-time engagement with contextual content can easily grab the eyeballs of users on social media and do wonders for brands. Brands need to keep on experimenting with the tonality, theme and format of the content to connect with their consumers. Though in some instances like with videos, the ratio of failures would be on a higher side, with only 2 out of 10 videos getting valuable returns to a travel brand.

3-The power of user generated content

The content shouldn’t be hammered. Let users be the end provider of the content because that’s where we want the impact to happen. And by this travel brands can deliver engaging content that creates likeability and brand image. The visual content drives maximum amount of traction in the hospitality sector.

Images are very powerful sources to draw attention. The contributed images play a major role here because that’s how the reality is perceived. Hence, meta search engines like Tripadvisor and GoIbibo let users contribute visually curated content. The way forward is to get the community to participate.

4-The emerging trends on new platforms

The right kind of content gets the right kind of traction on a right platform. That being said, the social media has expanded its reach to the millennial. Platforms like Facebook and Twitter are not the sole propagating areas and travel brands should go beyond just them. The new emerging platforms that are unheard of as means to expand the brands reach could include Wikipedia and TED.

TED is a rather interactive platform where innovation meets expansion. A particular product or a campaign could draw n-number of views on TED given its marketing strategy focuses on the innovation and experience.

5-Popular formats to be applied

The marketers talked about how not just purist content should be the only focus in driving traveller’s imagination. They talked how infographics, GIFs and vine videos could provide engaging content as they drew the attention of the viewer. Thumbnail image in a video plays a great role in catching the attention of a user. Square video formats have to be propelled forward in an m-commerce platform dominated space if the brands want the content to go viral. Being said this; the attention span in a chaotic space is very less which lays emphasis on streaming captivating content in first 2-3 seconds. Else, the marketer loses the viewer.

We will be coming up with updates of interesting discussions that took place at FICCI Conclave. Stay tuned!

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ibibo group, the parent company of popular OTA Goibibo, will raise USD 250 Million from internet & media company Naspers. ibibo is jointly backed by Naspers and Chinese internet group Tencent. Along with the popular OTA Goibibo, the ibibo group also operates bus ticket booking platform Redbus, B2B travel platform Travel BoutiqueOnline and budget hotel chain Gostays.

All the ibibo’s portfolio companies will benefit from the additional capital. The online travel space in India is highly competitive and despite being one of the bigger players, Goibibo faces stiff competition. In the OTA space, it primarily faces competition from MakeMyTrip, Cleartrip and Yatra. To fuel its growth in Indian market, Ctrip recently announced an investment of USD 180 million in MakeMyTrip.

The emergence of new players like Oyo rooms in Indian travel industry has started to pose new challenges for OTAs. To combat the same, Goibibo launched their own budget hotel brand called Gostays. The hotel industry offers plenty of headroom for the online travel brands and the recent investments will fuel them to take the faster lane.

“The Indian e-commerce market and the online travel segment in particular, offer exciting growth prospects for us as a group. With a talented, proven management team and exceptional technology, ibibo is well positioned to benefit from an increasing number of people using online travel services going forward,” said Bob van Dijk, CEO, Naspers Group in a release.

The hotel bookings on Goibibo crossed 1.6 million during Q3 2015 with a strong growth of 400 percent year on year. With the increased mobile penetration in the Indian market, the bookings through mobile phones contributed to over 70 percent against 42 percent a year ago. The group will use the resources to further ramp up their mobile offerings and introduce new technologies to cater to the modern traveller.

ibibo group has previously acquired and invested in promising travel technology startups. The group acquired bus analytics platform YourBus in 2014 and invested in cloud based hotel service company Djubo last year. We can expect more such announcements from the group in a bid to adopt new technologies and explore new avenues.

The recent investments in the OTA space will certainly give more momentum to this segment and it will be interesting to see how these big players use that to gain a bigger share in the market.

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Travelling wisely is essential when you have a limited budget and many interesting destinations to explore. While travelling by flights or cars can be a costly affair, buses can be a good option. They are cheap and there are innumerable online bus booking services.

There are many websites that provide affordable services for an excellent bus travelling experience within India. For your convenience, we have listed few online portals that might be of use to you sometime soon.

#1 Goibibo

Being voted as the ‘Best Website’ in Leisure and Travel category by Website of the Year in 2015, Goibibo is considered to be one of the top 3 online travel aggregators in India. If you are planning to travel by bus to a nearby Indian city, Goibibo can be a good option. By booking buses from this website, you can get free shopping vouchers worth Rs. 5000. You will receive the vouchers on the registered e-mail id immediately after the transaction which can be used for booking hotels, online shopping and dining.

#2 Travelyaari

With the network of over 2,100 bus operators and 1,50,000 bus options per day, Travelyaari is one of the leading online bus booking portals of the country. The brand claims that it doesn’t charge any amount as booking fees. You will have to pay the bus ticket price only. Interestingly, Travelyaari maintains a unique online booking system that ensures the safety of solo female travellers. The female travellers have the liberty to book a seat beside women during the course of the journey.

#3 eTravelSmart

eTravelSmart is an intuitive online bus booking portal that enables you to reach your favourite destinations with absolute comfort and ease. While it has ordinary filters like ticket fares, boarding points, types of buses and dropping points, it features ‘smart’ filters like Block My Seat, Travel Recharge, Name on Seat and Seat Availability Calendar. You can use these features to make travel planning a simpler process.

#4 Cleartrip

Cleartrip is one of the popular travel aggregators used by thousands of users every day. Other than services for hotels, flights and trains, it provides bus service too. Many times you plan to travel by volvos for a more convenient ride, Observing this trend among travellers, the website has a category like Volvo Smart Tab that displays only the volvo bus services running between any two destinations. Also, it has a Recommended Smart Tab that displays the top 15 bus services according to a reliable algorithm. This will allow you to make a smarter choice for booking the apt seat for yourself.

#5 AbhiBus

With ticket inventory from 2000 operators and 50,000 routes, AbhiBus provides many buses for many popular cities like Delhi, Jaipur, Bangalore and Mumbai. Booking buses through it is much easier as it has a user-friendly interface. You just need to enter the general details of the journey you plan to take and you will be guided to the best bus services available then. Also, you can book your bus tickets at the last minute through its mobile app. If you are from Andra Pradesh, you can book APSRTC buses through it within seconds.

How many of the online bus booking portals above have you used for your travel till date?

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Yesterday, I received a promo-emailer from Goibibo, one of the leading B2C travel aggregators of India. The email was apparently sent to all Goibibo users like me and had factoids on the astounding growth of Goibibo as India’s largest hotel booking platform. The Gurgaon based travel aggregator states that the research has been conducted by Morgan Stanley and also claims that on the business side, its platform inGoibibo has the largest usage among hoteliers.

For many observers in travel industry, this growth might come across on expected lines as Goibibo has been heavily incentivising its users with huge cashback offers including goCash resulting in overall increase in traction across hotels.

But is there a catch somewhere?

The data by Goibibo is in stark contrast to a recent report on Indian hotel bookings by research agency, Millward Brown. According to their report, MakeMyTrip leads the OTA hotel booking segment with close to 25% market share followed by Goibibo with 18.9%. The report adds that MakeMyTrip currently has 27,500 hotels and guesthouses in India and 255,000 hotels outside India listed on its platform.

MakeMyTrip which had recently received US$180 million in investment from China’s leading travel agency Ctrip.com states that funds will go towards aggressively increasing its market share in the online hotel booking space from 25% to 50% in the next 3 years.

Switching back to the research by Morgan Stanley, the graph below shows that the online bookings are inclined in favour of Goibibo across the metro & non-metro clusters. Even in tourist hubs Goibibo’s growth graph peaks compared to its competitors.

Morgan Stanley’s research paints a different representation of the % hotel volume share among OTAs.

Goibibo’s incremental share of bookings is also the highest among all OTAs:

TravHQ Take: The opportunity is huge for an extremely under-penetrated online hotel booking segment in India which currently stands at 25% of which OTAs only account for approximately 19% share. With significantly higher percentage margins compared to online air tickets and the power to run discounts, the hotel booking segment continues to be a lucrative one for all players irrespective of who really owns the largest pie. With PayTM’s expected entry in the travel market place, 2016 certainly promises to be an exciting year for India’s online travel industry.

The post The curious case of which Indian OTA owns the hotel booking pie appeared first on TravHQ.

With another month coming to end, we have more interesting stories to share. This month we saw some major acquisitions being announced. In a bid to go strong against Airbnb, Expedia announced the acquisition of HomeAway while Marriott announced the acquisition of Starwood Hotels to create the biggest hotel chain. We have created a round-up of some of our most popular stories this month just in case you missed them.

#1. Marriott International to acquire Starwood Hotels

With a goal to create the largest hotel company in the world, Marriott International declared to purchase Starwood Hotels and Resorts for USD 12.2 billion. Starwood is a popular brand among young travellers and has got strong reward programs. After the acquisition is complete, it will have 5500 properties and more than a million hotel rooms under 30 brands. Read the full story Marriott International to acquire Starwood to boost global presence.

#2. Predictions for industry trends from Phocuswright Conference

The industry is changing fast and with large number of experts under the same roof, events like Phocuswright Conference help us update ourselves with the trends. There were discussions about activity space, Chinese market, big data and lot more. We compiled a list of top tweets shared during the event that sum up the state of travel industry. Read the full story 9 Tweets from Phocuswright Conference that sum up the state of travel industry.

#3. Conversation with Maunik Thacker, Senior Vice President of marketing at Marina Bay Sands

In a very short time period of 5 years, the Marina Bay Sands hotel has become the top venue for business events in the region. With correct positioning and by tapping into right markets, it enjoys close to full occupancy all year round. We had a chat with Maunik Thacker who shared the secrets of hotel’s immense success. Read the full story Maunik Thacker, Senior Vice President of Marketing at Marina Bay Sands shares the hotel’s success mantra.

#4. Domestic carriers can offer ‘Zero bag’ fares

DGCA has allowed domestic carriers to roll out ‘Zero bag’ fares. Under this, they can offer discounted price for tickets for travellers who are travelling without any check-in luggage. This would also allow them to charge penalty against the baggage for tickets booked under ‘Zero bag’ fares. Read the full story New DGCA regulation allows domestic carriers to offer ‘Zero bag’ fares.

#5. British Airways receives huge backlash over Twitter

British Airways stayed on top of Twitter trends for the bad reasons. After messing up a Twitter reply to Sachin Tendulkar, widely regarded as the greatest cricketer of all time. The fans actively tweeted against British Airways for being irresponsible and giving pre-drafted replies to the star cricketer. Read the full story This tweet by British Airways to India’s God, Sachin Tendulkar has put them in Hall of Shame.

#6. Goibibo’s ex-COO joins MakeMyTrip

Soon after parting ways with Goibibo, Deepak Tuli joined MakeMyTrip as Senior Vice-President-Growth Business. He was one of the co-founders of Goibibo and was functioning as the COO with the OTA. With MakeMyTrip, he will be developing new strategies to grow business in accommodation segment. Read the full story Goibibo’s ex-COO Deepak Tuli joins MakeMyTrip as Senior VP.

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