Tag Archives: OTA

‘We are a community-first travel tech company in the domain of conscious luxury’

Amit Jaipuria, Founder and CEO (Chief Experience Officer) at Postcard Travel Club

Q. How do you differentiate Postcard Travel from a host of travel communities online?
We are a community-first travel tech & media company specifically in the domain of conscious luxury travel bringing together and connecting a global community of conscious luxury travellers, travel designers, storytellers, and boutique properties that collectively advance responsible tourism. Postcard Travel Club is all about conscious luxury travel, and we are continuing to develop products and concepts that will put the spotlight on this niche and bring the community closer together. These include conscious luxury travellers, boutique properties, tour operators, travel advisors among others of different countries that collectively advance conscious luxury travel.

Q. What was the vision behind setting up Postcard Travel?
Postcard Travel was born out of a passion project in 2020 when I was taking a break from a previous project and looking for travel inspiration. I found researching traditional sources for inspiration to be cumbersome and time-consuming. I found it hard to easily find a curated collection of boutique properties that offered immersive experiences aligned with my personal interests and hobbies.

With this in mind, I spoke with many other like-minded travelers who shared the same challenges being faced with traditional search options. I then spoke with many value-aligned boutique properties as well as tour operators and asked them the challenges that they faced in marketing their products to conscious luxury travelers. They mentioned that they didn’t have the budgets to compete with larger brands and OTA spends on search engines, social media was cluttered, and there was a lack of engagement within their brand community. They were open to considering alternate channels to connect with the conscious luxury traveller community.

This made us realise that there was a large “discovery gap” between the conscious luxury travellers and conscious luxury suppliers in the industry. Postcard Travel Club was founded to help bridge this gap and facilitate connection between the two. Furthermore, we wanted to develop a unique business model that would incentivise conscious luxury travelers to book directly with suppliers, increase profitability for suppliers, savings for consumers and collectively advance the responsible travel movement.

Stakeholders of the industry are primary source for any major change. In that context, how are you sensitising the B2B players about the virtue of sustainable travel?
Our definition of sustainable travel is when everyone becomes more mindful when they travel which eventually leads to sustainable travel. However, we are showcasing the work that b2b players (such as Rare India, The Long Run, and their members) are doing related to sustainable travel to our community of conscious luxury travelers. We also have plans to showcase the impact being made by our partner properties to other partners that are part of the platform in an effort to share best practices.

Q. How are you going to create awareness about the mindful local experiences among the Indian traveller?
Every immersive local experience is showcased on Postcard Travel Club is presented in the form of digital Postcards presented by a partner property. Each Postcard can be flipped to read more about the experience, collected to build wish-lists, shared with other friends and family on social media, and contains links to more information and the property website. Every Postcard is also indexed with interest tags, which allow the Postcard search engine to identify immersive experiences and boutique properties that match consumer interests and values. With this fast, fun and easy search feature, conscious luxury travelers can very quickly find value-aligned experiences and boutique properties that match their interests.

Q. In terms of industry alliances, which are some of the partnerships that you have signed on?
We partner with value-aligned collectives that bring together brands that advance responsible tourism, RARE India, Transformational Travel Council and The Long Run are some of the communities we have collaborated with.

Cleartrip emerges as the second-largest OTA player in the country: VIDEC Research

Cleartrip, a Flipkart company, cements its position as the second-largest OTA player in the country. A recent in-depth OTA benchmarking research study by VIDEC revealed that Cleartrip saw industry-leading growth in FY23 and strengthened its position in the segment.

While the company has seen significant growth in the air category, it has made strategic investments in Hotels, Buses, and B2B businesses, revamping their existing offerings and launching new tools and products. At the beginning of the year, it has launched its own marquee event, the Nation on Vacation event, redefining and bringing forward the booking period for the traditional summer holiday season by partnering with 40+ airlines and 80000+ domestic and 4L+ international hotels in offering lucrative prices and value-added services to their customers.

Commenting on this, Ayyappan R., CEO, Cleartrip stated, “This move is a milestone in Cleartrip’s journey and is a testament to our commitment to customer-centricity and sustainable growth. Travel is a massive industry that has witnessed rapid growth and is expected to scale further heights. We believe that we are in the right position to innovate and bring about disruption through technology. This is a new chapter for Cleartrip and by no means the end destination. We will continue to curate value-led constructs, expand our product categories, innovate on behalf of our customers, and make travel an affordable and accessible aspiration for all.”

VIDEC, a boutique research company with a singular focus on the global travel industry has conducted the current study – Indian OTA Landscape: India Travel Market Sizing, OTA Benchmarking & Consumer Insights. The report encapsulates the market sizing, segmentation, OTA benchmarking, and travel consumer insights for the Indian travel marketplace through executive interviews with suppliers, travel distributors OTAs, and travel technology providers operating in India.

Shedding light on the key research findings, Virendra Jain, Co-Founder and CEO, VIDEC, said, “Led by the OTAs, the India travel market has made a resounding recovery to INR 3,892 billion (US$48.7B) in FY23 and is estimated to reach INR 5,787 billion (US$72.4B) in FY26. Air would continue to be the largest travel category at INR 1,743 billion (US$21.8B) in FY23, the growth henceforth would equally come from the rise in Indian international demand and non-air categories. The ground category will fuel the often talked about the ‘next billion Indian opportunity’.”

‘India accounts for 85% of Fareportal’s manpower’

In an interaction with Disha Shah Ghosh, Rajat Bhatia, Director on Board/VP –People & Culture (International) and Vikas Banga, VP-Products, Fareportal shed light on their technology innovation, manpower and and customisation for corporate travel needs.

Q. How does Fareportal bridge the gap between a booking site and an agent?
A. Fareportal provides high quality and high touch customer care 24/7 through its captive contact centre with phone numbers displayed on every web page, providing wide variety of travel products and assisted buying for our customers.

Q. How do you position Fareportal in the global market vis-à-vis competitors in the same space?
A. Fareportal’s main business focus is in the Flights domain, and thus being amongst the top three largest flights OTA in North America. Additionally, Fareportal provides high quality and high touch customer care 24/7 though its captive contact centre with phone numbers displayed on every web page.

Q. Enlighten us on some of the back-end technology innovation from the Fareportal stable?
A. Fareportal has been instrumental by leading industry-first integrations of airline ancillaries and NDC with the world’s top airlines. There are also many technology backend innovations like the chatbot, enhanced customer interactions through RPA and using machine learning backed search engine to provide most appropriate travel products to our customers.

Q. Talking about the Indian market, traditional travel agents still play an important role. Keeping this in mind, where do you think the OTA market is heading for, especially after the pandemic?
A. The OTA market will continue to see significant growth and we can see significant signs of recovery post the pandemic. The key differentiator, however, will be technology and personalisation. Customer loyalty and retention, assisted buying and flexible booking options, at a good price will differentiate OTAs.

Q. There is a need for skilled manpower in the travel industry to drive businesses with technology. In that sense, what is your manpower requirement for India and plans for maximising your staff strength?
India accounts for 85% of our global manpower. We will continue to invest in high skilled manpower, to drive growth and high-end technology solutions for our customers.

Q. In terms of customisation for corporate travel needs, what are your service add-ons with new travel norms in place for overseas travel?
A. Fareportal provides travellers with detailed information related to travel norms, and visa restrictions during the booking process and till the time customer has completed the journey. In addition, on certain international routes we offer products like Cancel for Any Reason (CFAR) which gives the flexibility to travellers to get instant refund in case their plans change or are impacted by any new travel norm.

 

Liberatha Travel Biz Monitor

‘Overall Indian lounge market is forecasted at INR 5,800cr by 2030, huge opportunity’

DreamFolks is upbeat about expanding its footprint with the growth of airports and airport infrastructure in India. Liberatha Peter Kallat, Chairperson and MD, DreamFolks Services Limited, in a conversation with Disha Shah Ghosh speaks about their partnerships and impending IPO.

Q. What kind of footprint does DreamFolks enjoy in India?
DreamFolks is India’s largest airport service aggregator platform facilitating an enhanced airport experience to passengers leveraging a technology-driven platform. We facilitate access to 100% of the 50 lounges currently operational in India. As of December 31, 2021, we had exclusivity to provide access to 11 domestic lounges constituting around 22% domestic lounges for India-issued credit cards and debit cards. We enjoyed a market share of over 95% of all India-issued credit card and debit card-based access to airport lounges in FY2020. Further, as of December 31, 2021 through our partnerships with other service providers, we have a global footprint extending to 1,259 touch-points in 121 countries across the globe, including India.

We have an asset-light business model that integrates global card networks operating in India, credit and debit card issuers, OTAs and other corporate clients including airline companies to various airport lounge operators and other airport related service providers on a unified technology platform. Our services include access to lounges, food and beverage, spa, meet and assist, airport transfer, transit hotels/nap rooms, baggage transfer, and other such airport related services.

Q. Enumerate on your technology platform. How does it seamlessly integrate service offerings on the DreamFolks app alongside second- and third-party channels?
DreamFolks’ business model has a strong focus on technology. Our technology platform is aimed at ensuring that all entities on or availing of our platform i.e., client, operators, and consumers, have a seamless & ‘hassle-free’ experience. Our platform addresses aspects such as benefits calculation and accounting, provides real time visibility of transactions to clients and consumers.

The DreamFolks platform enables customisation of services for clients to their customers. Options include campaigns to provide benefits to identified set of end-users. It also enables creation of differentiated benefit tiers within the same card programme, group and individual based benefits, support for guests and supplementary card-members, permitting end-users to pay for services in real time or settle pursuant to card statements, purchase credits, allow clubbing of benefits across multiple cards of consumers, ease the discovery of lounges and other services.

Our platform includes connectors and application programming interfaces (API) which facilitate integration with client systems, or with any hybrid access modes depending on client’s preference. We also have an entire set of APIs and solutions to cater to non-BFS clients where access vouchers can be issued by clients to the consumers. Our proprietary technology has been a crucial element in our ability to ramp up our business by introducing increasing levels of automation and, thereby, simplifying transactional and process aspects for both clients and service providers.

The platform also enables clients to run usage and spend-based campaigns for their users. We leverage our configuration-driven extendible platform with solution templates for flexibility, reliability and customisation, to provide solutions through multiple access models. Our hybrid model enables omni-channel access for card-based transactions, through membership cards, and also facilitates digital access like our client’s banking apps (called ‘in-app’), or our DreamFolks mobile application.

Q. What are some of the new partnerships forged in the past two years to extend your service offerings?
Our service offerings have increased significantly, and we have continued to augment our client base over the years, which includes India’s prominent card networks and card issuers. We have been associated with the airport lounge programmes of clients such as RuPay, ICICI Bank Limited, HDFC Bank Limited (in respect of debit card lounge program), Axis Bank Limited, and Standard Chartered Bank. Further, we have had long association with a number of our clients. Our top 5 Clients, as of September 30, 2021, have been associated with us for over 3 years out of the 8 years that we have been operational. Our client portfolio also includes prominent airlines, a telecommunication company, an online travel agency (OTA) and other corporates in India who generally make available these services to customers of their choice. We have also, over the years, broad based our client profile by bringing in more corporate clients into our fold by augmenting our bouquet of services which they could add onto their product offerings for their customer engagement programmes.

Q. In terms of customer engagement, what do your partnerships bring to the table for corporate travellers vis-à-vis leisure tourists?
We have expanded our client portfolio from card networks/issuers to include airlines, OTAs, corporates thus making our services accessible to not just the business travellers but also families, leisure travel and the MICE segment. Our product suite is now being leveraged for a variety of consumer engagement and employee engagement programmes. We facilitate end-to-end assistance to the consumers at the airport.

• Lounge Access: We offer a unique value proposition to our Clients by enabling access to the Consumers to a network of all operational airport lounges in India.
• Food and Beverage offerings: We have tie-ups with various F&B entities where Consumers can select from the curated ‘DreamFolks’ menu a variety of vegetarian and non-vegetarian food and beverage combinations (‘combo’ offerings).
• Spa Services: As part of our focus on making air travel as enjoyable and relaxing as possible, consumers can avail of specified massage therapies such as head, neck and shoulder massage, and foot reflexology.
• Meet and Assist: These services are available at select airports to Consumers at arrival and departure terminals of select airports in India. We have also entered into an agreement with an international airport concierge service provider. We also provide an option to facilitate ‘medical meet & assist’ at arrivals at select airports in India.
• Airport transfer services: We facilitate airport transfer, i.e., airport ‘pick-up and drop’ facilities in 47 cities across India and in 145 cities outside India, as at December 31, 2021.
• Transit Hotels / Nap Room Access: In Mumbai and New Delhi, through our tie up with Niranta Airport Transit Hotel & Lounge (a unit of International Airport Hotels & Resorts Private Limited) and Holiday Inn Express New Delhi International Airport T-3 (a unit of Devaryaa Hospitalities Private Limited), we facilitate access to hotel rooms. Further, in Bengaluru, Cochin and Mumbai, we also facilitate access to ‘nap rooms’ or ‘sleeping pods’, i.e., specialised facilities which allow passengers, particularly transit passengers, access to private rooms / compartmentalised sleeping quarters, with rest-room access.
• Baggage Transfer: We have tied up with a service provider to provide baggage pick-up and drop-off facility to and from airports across Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mumbai, and New Delhi.
• Other: In addition to providing Services at airports, we have also, in the current Fiscal, forayed into the railways sector and, we have entered into contracts to provide lounge access at 5 railway stations in India.

Q. It is expected that by 2040 India will be home to 295 airports. What kind of opportunity does this mean for airport lounge service providers?
The overall Indian lounge market which includes passengers accessing both domestic and international lounges is estimated at around INR 817.5 crore (FY 2020). This is forecasted to reach 5861.9 crore by FY2030, which is a huge opportunity for us.
Currently, there are approximately 50 lounges in India, and the overall number of lounges will increase in line with increasing traffic and passengers. It is important to note that the overall growth in lounge also includes the growth in lounge area in the existing lounges which are not included in the 143 new lounges which are expected to be added in between the years 2021-2040. The total number of lounges is expected to be 193 by 2040; these include the additional lounges across existing airports and new lounges across greenfield airports.

Q. DreamFolks has filed draft papers for going public. What is the expected timeline for launching the IPO?
We filed the Draft Red Herring Prospectus with SEBI towards the end of January with aim of going public soon. As per the regulations set out by SEBI, we will wait to get the necessary regulatory clearances. As and when we get the necessary approvals, we will look to launch the IPO based on our bankers’ advice.

Q. Do you think the current geographical and economic environment is conducive for going public especially when some giants have delayed their IPOs?
While we cannot comment on what others are planning to do, we believe that the Indian lounge access market is expected to see a huge growth due to the growth in airports and lounges. We will also be guided by our bankers and legal experts on the way forward.

Q. Since DreamFolks operates on an asset-light model. What kind of capital are you planning to raise through this IPO, and where will the funds be utilised?
We are an asset light business model. Our ability to fund our minimal capital expenditure from our internal accruals, and our efficient working capital management are testament to our prudent financial management. We fund our operations and capital requirements primarily through cash flows from operations. We expect that cash flow from operations will continue to be our principal sources of cash in the long term. The IPO is an offer for sale. Besides, the listing of the equity shares will enhance our visibility and brand image.

Q. What is your expansion plan? Any plans of foraying into new businesses?
We intend to penetrate deeper into our existing sectors that we cater to by expanding our client base. We plan to increase the number of our clients in the banking, telecommunications, OTA, airlines sector. While some of these sectors such as banking have a number of entities that we could focus on, other sectors such as telecommunications despite not having many players are critical since each player added could significantly increase the number of passengers that we could cater to. Further, we propose to cater to the diverse requirements by continuing to develop and build bespoke domain-specific solutions, tools, and portals for integration and management of the various airport services.

In addition, we also want to focus on customer engagement and loyalty solutions for corporate clients and build specific solutions for, amongst others, loyalty companies, e-commerce companies, new age digital companies, companies in the hospitality sector, and neo banks. We also plan to create ancillary revenue opportunities for clients in the online travel agency and airlines industries.

Mark Lewis-Brown, CEO & President, Vertical Booking USA

Mythbusters: Recovery Edition – Part I

Leave a reply

By Mark Lewis-Brown, CEO & President, Vertical Booking USA

There are lots of messages out there, in the hospitality industry now, about what hotels need to do, or what technology they need to buy, to reach recovery more quickly. Some of these messages are accurate and others… questionable.

But don’t you worry… I’ve got you covered. Get ready for a thorough debunking of three common “myths” related to COVID recovery strategies.

MYTH #1: Business and/or city-center hotels are dead

Truth: There is no type of hotel that can’t reach profitability, even if corporate travel and MICE business doesn’t pick back up again for years. Full stop.

The road to success will be different for these hotels, but still fully attainable; the key to success for city-center and corporate hotels is to make their properties relevant in other ways to the types of consumers that are looking for new, exciting travel experiences. Think about out-of-the box experiential activities that leisure travelers will love – and that will inspire them to choose to book with your property to experience it.

It’s also important to look for opportunities for other revenue streams for your property. Here’s a fantastic idea that The Jupiter Hotel in Portland implemented to boost their appeal to leisure travelers – and create a new revenue stream: they partnered with local restaurants and chefs to create pop-up restaurants, featuring different types of cuisine or well-known chefs. The food was delivered to each guest in their room, giving them a private chef’s table experience to remember!

Here’s why this idea is so genius: by partnering with restauranteurs, they are doing good for the community, while attracting a new demographic to their property: followers of the restaurant or chef. Today, chefs have become the new rock stars, and consumers will follow them around the world to taste their food. By bringing those well-known chefs to your property, you’ll be creating a new revenue stream and securing bookings with lots of new, very excited leisure guests.

MYTH #2: Less is more, when it comes to OTAs & other online booking channels

This is a very prevalent belief, especially in the US, for hoteliers. Don’t get me wrong, I completely understand why hoteliers are frustrated and want to drive more direct bookings; that being said, today, hotels need to accept all the bookings that they can – no matter where they come from.

Remember that you only pay the OTAs when you get a booking, so why limit yourself to just listing your property on a few OTAs?! Your property should be listed on as many OTAs and other online booking channels as possible right now, even if it’s just for the free advertising!

As well as the big-name OTAs, hotels should also be listing their property on regional booking sites used by travelers who are interested in traveling to their destination; for example, if you know that there is demand in your destination from European travelers, you should be listing your rooms on their preferred booking sites to capture some of that pre-existing demand.

Another good reason that you should be on as many OTAs as possible: The Billboard Effect. Often, consumers use the OTAs to identify what properties are available in a destination and then will click through to the property’s website to book direct. It’s been proven in countless studies over the years; being listed on as many online booking channels as possible brings in bookings through the sites AND increases direct bookings.

Total win/win, right?!

MYTH #3: “There is no demand on the GDS, so I don’t need to be listed on it”

Don’t disregard the importance of the GDS. Even though there may be fewer bookings coming through the GDS, stats have shown that many travelers, post-COVID, will be preferring to book through travel agents; in fact, a recent study showed that “44% of travelers are more likely to use travel advisors after the pandemic.”

In addition to the leisure travelers who will be using travel agents, post-COVID, there will still be corporate bookings coming through, albeit less. Either way, having a presence on the GDS is another way to expand your reach – again, giving your property the opportunity to secure as many bookings as possible and reach recovery, more quickly.