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TourismFirst_February_issue

ONLINE: bOOKINg.COM 19 mergers a sign of growing maturity; will boost rational pricing, says Vikas bhola In an exhaustive interview, touching upon issues like trends in the online market space, challenges and innovation, Vikas bhola, regional Manager - Indian subcontinent, booking.com expressed optimism at the future of the Indian travel space. he also asserted that the much touted MMT-Ibibo deal was a sign of maturity in the market which would help create a degree of price rationalisation – a desperate need after years of merciless discounting war witnessed in the online space. By ShAShAnK SheKhAr November saw a major eco- nomic event – demonetization. I understand that given your online presence and dealings, your consumers are accustomed to the online medium. but what happened post demonetization? Can you share with us some trends post the govern- ment diktat? Well, what happened was there was a slump for the next 2-3 days, as people started to absorb what really happened. But over a period of time, what we have seen eventually is a steep rise in online transactions – which obviously means that people are getting far more comfortable in using digital payments and solutions. Which is good. It helps us to further accelerate. So, in a way it was good. From a micro-economic term, as well. It was a bit of a challenge initially, and from a macro-economic term as well, it is going to be a good move. It has been three months since the note- ban. have you seen a change in the usual trend? It is an important time of the year for the outbound. Can you also shed some light on which destinations and hotel segment gained the most traction? During the holiday season, we saw people booking all sort of hotels. To give a perspec- tive, a first-time booker will simply book a hotel that gives them the experience and the charm of a staying in a hotel. you have had such guests as well? Yes, it doesn’t necessarily need to be a five- star hotel, just a typical medium sized hotel that will still give you the real experience of it. A more evolved traveller, or student travellers, backpackers and such, also a raw traveller wants to experience more local type accommodations. They could look at apart- ments, or hostels, or guest houses to get that experience. So, that is the way the typical holiday season played out. It all depends on what the customer really wants to experi- ence. If you take the holiday season out, one of the biggest things we are seeing is people merging their business travel with leisure. As the business travel starts to increase, there is more demand for ‘bleisure’ a business trip with one or two days extra of leisure to enjoy the destination. That is an important emerg- ing trend. The hVs report indicates that the mid-segment hotels will remain the backbone of India’s growth story in the hospitality sector, and the domestic leisure segment is where the big money is going to be. What is your take on both these assertions? Absolutely correct. The millennials, or the rising middle class is the force to trap. I would also say that we are heading towards a tailwind in the travel space, because more and more people are wanting to travel and as they have more disposable incomes, they will travel. The first experience that they are going to have is the experience of their own mobile platform, especially with the government backing the ‘digital India’ initiative and several amendments to ensure that digital transactions are car- ried out without levying extra charge. do you really think that this is the moment most of you as online players were waiting for and now is the time to truly take to the mobile as a platform for conducting business? Mobile is a very important part of our business, and I would say that a majority of our transactions still happens on mobile. When I say majority, I mean a lion’s share of our transactions in India are being conducted on the mobile platform. What is that figure for you? At this stage, we would not be able to give you the India figure but on a company-wide level, one-third of our transactions are happening on the mobile. I am just talking about the mega numbers that we do every day. A lot of companies talk about The millennials, or the rising middle class is the force to trap. I would also say that we are heading towards a tailwind in the travel space, because more and more people are wanting to travel and as they have more disposable incomes, they will travel. The first experience that they are going to have is the experience of their own country. India has so much to offer and we see those mega trends moving towards the domestic leisure segment. ,, reGionAL mAnAGer - indiAn sUbContinent, bookinG.Com VIKAS BholA One of the biggest trends has been the emergence of travellers mixing their business with pleasure and there is more demand for ‘bleisure’. country. India has so much to offer and we see those mega trends moving towards the domestic leisure segment. If you look at the airline space as well, it is a very similar trend. Trends show that the domestic airline travel is fairly strong and the travel space is going to grow. The business and the leisure segments, both, are going to grow. booking.com is a multinational com- pany. Probably the strongest player in Europe, and doing a fine job in India too, but with two of the strongest players in the online space, MMT and Ibibo, both formidable entities, have come together focusing on their own strengths. What sort of a challenge does it pose for you? I think that is an interesting question. My two cents in the merger is that I think it is a sign of maturity in the market, which probably means we will see some rationalisation in pricing as two big players, who were compet- ing with each other, have decided to come together. I think that both these companies have carved their own niche and they can grow in their respective areas. For us, it is like a blue ocean at the moment. We are pretty much covering the whole span of the ac- commodation space, and we are always first and foremost for the customer. That is the principle of our business – to really see what the customer wants, and to build out supply that matches that demand. a lot of industry insiders speculate that the development will put a lid on the merciless discount war that was going on in the OTa space. There will be some sort of stabilization coming in. booking. com was never heavy on discounting, and was always heavy on creating an experience. so, for a company like yours, it surely is a great development? Well, yes. That is absolutely true. What we have experienced and seen is that when you are really close to partners to really help them understand the nuances of their business, giving them the analytical tools for them to make smart decisions that often the natural outcome is the partners see the overwhelming benefit of giving us the best price. We manage to capture demand very efficiently and ultimately, providing the best price helps both parties. So, yes for sure, it would help us if there is rational pricing, but we have also seen is that it is not always about the price. It is also about the experience, and who you book with mat- ters a lot in deciding what kind of holiday you are going to have. The decision making is not purely built on price, but also on the value- add that you are going to get when you book with a particular platform. But I do agree that rational pricing will create a fair playground for us to capture the market. India truly is at the cusp of taking to the how they are a mobile-first company, we do not necessarily say that, we always say that we are a customer- first company and that enables us to see where the customer needs us – which is basically the whole spectrum, and that covers mobile as well. For example, we’ve learned that 75% of our customers that reach out to properties proactively prefer to take care of simple stay-related requests via self-service tooling and we wanted to provide them with a convenient and familiar interface to manage these requests in the most seamless way possible. As a result, we brought in an app for our partners. Could you elaborate a little bit on that? Yes, we have an app called Pulse. The interface helps us and our accommodation partners to provide a smooth, enjoyable and stress-free travel experience for our custom- ers, especially for frequent travellers who need to manage multiple stays on the go. It allows partners that keeps them up-to-date with the most relevant and time-sensitive news for their property, including check-ins and check-outs for the day, as well as new bookings, and now special requests from their Booking.com guests. It allows proper- ties to load their availability and price and understand the issues that a customer is having at the time of staying at a property. For example, on most review sites you can give review after your stay. Here you have the opportunity to give reviews during the stay and correct something that is not right at that particular point of time. so, the hotel is lot more responsive? Exactly, and also communication that was to- tally missing like the time of arrival, and also opportunities such as airport transfers. That becomes extremely easy. It’s all a part of our machine learning so, very simple answers can be replied to in a fraction of time.

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