NEW DELHI: With competition heightening in the online flight-booking space and margins getting squeezed, MakeMyTrip, India’s first online travel portal, is looking at hotels to drive revenue growth. And, the company expects hotels to contribute as much as three-quarters of its overall business over the next three years.
“Hotel is currently 57 per cent of our business. By 2020, 75 per cent of our total business will come from hotels. We are very bullish about the future,” said MakeMyTrip founder, chairman and group CEO Deep Kalra.
Kalra noted that while air business used to be MakeMyTrip’s mainstay, the company has consciously made the shift to hotels because the latter offers higher margin. “It is very fragmented too,” he added.
MakeMyTrip’s air business has come down to 35 per cent, while up to 10 per cent is holiday packages and cars.
Kalra added that air is important for the company because the customer acquisition happens through air and though margins would get tighter and tighter in future, at the current volume, air is profitable.
Founded in 2000 by Kalra, MakeMyTrip provides customers access to all major domestic full-service and low-cost airlines operating in India and major airlines operating to and from the country.