Tag Archives: Goibibo

In the ongoing row over unethical business practices involving MakeMyTrip and Goibibo (Go-MMT) giving the preferential listing to Oyo and putting other budget hotel franchises at disadvantage, a division bench of the Gujarat High Court has directed the Competition Commission of India (CCI) to afford Oyo Rooms an opportunity of hearing. On the said matter, FHRAI is pitching for open and fair competition in the market and intends to put an end to the disruption caused by Oyo.

The Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Associations of India (FHRAI) has reached out to the Ministry of Tourism (MoT) regarding the hotel industry’s ongoing dispute with Goibibo, MakeMyTrip and OYO requesting its urgent intervention for redressal of hoteliers’ grievances. After a month of failed attempts to amicably resolve issues with the Online Travel Aggregators (OTAs), the apex hospitality body has written to KJ Alphons, Union Minister of State (I/C) Tourism, outlining the major issues of concern to the industry because of the OTAs’ unfair and arbitrary business practices. A number of FHRAI’s members are experiencing hardships due to the OTAs’ business ethics which are exploitative, unethical and divisive, leading to predatory pricing and other market distortions. The letter to the Ministry states that the hotel industry in the country is going through a very challenging phase which is threatening the livelihood, business, investments and entrepreneurial initiative and spirits of the hospitality industry, and thereby eroding the viability of the sector. “The hotel industry, especially the budget and mid-market hotel segment is reeling under the adverse business tactics of the OTAs. The OTAs’ malpractices are affecting the hoteliers’ livelihood and business. These hoteliers who are part of the local and city hotel Associations across the country have approached FHRAI seeking consultation and support, and are in solidarity with the Federation. The FHRAI has tried to resolve the issue directly with the OTAs, however instead its CEO has chosen to dismiss FHRAI’s role in the matter. It leaves us with no choice but to ask for the Government to step in and create a norm for the OTAs just as the Commerce Ministry has done for the e-tailers recently,” says Gurbaxish Singh Kohli, …

After MakeMyTrip (MMT) group’s chief executive Deep Kalra’s recent comment that the Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Association of India (FHRAI) has no locus standi to determine commercial agreements between MMT and the establishments on its platform, Gurbaxish Singh Kohli, VP, FHRAI, says, “Goibibo and MMT have been exploitive, unethical and adapted divisive business practices, leading to predatory pricing, market distortions and cannibalisation. I fail to see how our letter clearly worded as requesting to “resolve” the situation would be misconstrued as trying to “dictate” terms. India has approximately 100,000 establishments which provide accommodation. Approximately, 65,000 are structured licensed establishments, out of which around 45,000 hotels are stand-alone hotels. “FHRAI has never got involved all these years in any negotiations with standalone vendors but takes a strong stand when the industry faces any outside coercion or intimidation. It is only when 1000’s of hoteliers realised Goibibo and MMT’s arrogant method of pressurising the small hotels in high commissions, more free rooms, started price control on the owners. FHRAI has, in its fiduciary duty stepped in to amicably resolve matters. Please note FHRAI is not here to negotiate as wrongly being projected. It is here to ensure that agencies like MMT and Goibibo do not take the industry for granted by parenting such market conditions in which it would be difficult to do business for one party but a win-win situation for the other.” He further said, “Going back to December 7, 2018, whilst the Ahmedabad Hoteliers blocked GOMMT in the city, Kalra wanted to sit with FHRAI and work out the issues. The team sent to “resolve” arrived but with a fixed agenda of “fixing” only commissions that too by a paltry reduction …

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 …

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.

Hotelivate has kicked off its 6th Hotel Operations Summit India (HOSI) at Taj Palace, New Delhi with stimulating discussions on topics pertaining to the hospitality industry. HOSI, the only dedicated forum for hotel professionals in the region, aims to empower today’s hospitality leaders through enabling conversations on management and operations-related issues, the rapidly evolving marketplace, latest industry trends, benchmarking and best practices. With the focus on increasing the diaspora of the speaker by bringing in leaders from businesses that are intricately tied up with the hospitality industry, the programme encompassed a series of keynote addresses by distinguished speakers and thought-provoking group discussions. Notable speakers included industry leaders such as Anshuman Bapna, Chief Product Officer, Goibibo; Dilip Puri, Founder and CEO, Indian School of Hospitality; Jiggs Kalra, Mentor and Culinary Director, Massive Restaurants; Raj Rana, Chief Executive Officer – South Asia, Radisson Hotel Group; Rattan Keswani, Deputy Managing Director, Lemon Tree Hotels; Navjit Ahluwalia, Senior Vice President and Country Head – India, Hilton; Ritesh Agarwal, Founder and CEO, OYO Rooms; Puneet Chhatwal, Managing Director and CEO, Indian Hotels Company, to name a few.

Goibibo has announced its partnership with PhonePe, a digital payments start-up, to provide a unified login and payments experience to over 100 million PhonePe users while making their hotel bookings. As a part of this partnership, Goibibo will be live with their ‘Hotels’ store (microapp) on the PhonePe app. Leveraging mutual synergies, the alliance brings together a streamlined travel booking experience through Goibibo, and assured reliability and integrity of payments through PhonePe. In an industry first, PhonePe users will also be able to use their goCash balance (Goibibo’s promotional currency) in the PhonePe app to book domestic and international hotels. Commenting on the partnership, Sanjay Bhasin, COO, Goibibo said, “This partnership will extend Goibibo’s extensive selection of over 50,000 domestic hotels and homestays, including Goibibo certified goStays and half a million international hotels to PhonePe’s growing customer base. PhonePe has taken a unique approach to solve digital payments, and their open ecosystem allows us to build the Goibibo experience into their app and engage with a wider user base on their platform.” Rahul Chari, Co-founder & CTO, PhonePe said, “With this partnership, Indian travellers can easily and conveniently make hotel bookings within their PhonePe app. The microapp storefront was built by GoIbibo in just three weeks, which is testimony to how simple it is to build out a merchant experience on PhonePe.”

In the backdrop of the demonetisation drive, Goibibo has launched a feature for its partner properties to collect online payments from their walk-in and offline customers. There is no requirement of POS machines. This is a secure and scalable feature launched by Goibibo for its partners. Goibibo has enabled 9000 properties in the first phase. There is a significant volume of properties in India that have a large percentage of walk-in guests. Also these properties do not have access to POS machines or digital payment instruments. Properties range from budget hotels, guest houses, BnB’s, alternate accommodation, homes, villas, cottages, houseboats etc. It is estimated that there are more than 100,000 such long tail accommodation units in India that lack access to digital payment solutions. Walking in customers can pay at the hotel via Credit and debit cards, EMI linked payments, Net banking and a host of wallets. Unlike wallets, this channel does not have any payment limits.  Ashish Kashyap, Founder & CEO, ibibo, says, “We at ibibo welcome demonetisation and digitization of transactions. Our mission is to organise the accommodation and transportation industry. This payment feature for offline use case is a step in this direction. Online travel is one of the few industries that has 100% of its transaction in a digital format. By launching this feature, we are catalyzing the movement from offline to online and at the same time solving problems for the hotel industry”

Leading online travel groups, MakeMyTrip Limited and ibibo Group, have agreed to pursue a transaction that will combine the two businesses under MakeMyTrip. The combination will bring together a bouquet of leading consumer travel brands, including MakeMyTrip, goibibo, redBus, Ryde and Rightstay, which together processed 34.1 mm transactions during FY2016.Following the closing of the proposed transaction, Founder Deep Kalra will remain Group CEO and Executive Chairman of MakeMyTrip and Co-founder Rajesh Magow will continue to remain CEO India of MakeMyTrip. Founder and CEO of ibibo Group, Ashish Kashyap, will join MakeMyTrip’s executive team as a Co-founder and President of the organization. The transaction is expected to unlock value for customers, supply partners and shareholders, by combining the complementary strengths of each business. Naspers and Tencent, through their jointly owned holding company (91% owned by Naspers and 9% owned by Tencent), are selling ibibo Group to MakeMyTrip in exchange for an issuance of new shares by MakeMyTrip. Upon closing of the transaction, MakeMyTrip will own 100% of ibibo Group. Naspers and Tencent will become the single largest shareholder in MakeMyTrip, owning a 40% stake, and will contribute proportionate working capital upon closing. Deep Kalra, Chairman and Group CEO of MakeMyTrip, said: “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.” Rajesh Magow, co-founder and CEO India of MakeMyTrip added: “We welcome the ibibo team to the newly expanded MakeMyTrip family. The combination of these two …

Goibibo has now launched a new feature of live flight tracking for 1824 daily flight schedules, for both domestic and international flights. With the new feature passengers are enabled with three key aspects—get real time data on the flight schedule, air craft type, gate number, baggage carousel information; get notified on delays with estimated time of departure and arrival, change in terminal and gate information; and enable friends/ families of the passenger to track their journey as well as get notified on arrival information or change in schedules. Ashish Kashyap, Founder & CEO, Ibibo Group, said : “Flight tracking and status information is first of its kind. This is in line with our focus of constantly delivering unique consumer experiences and at the same enhancing our travel social network, GoContacts. We have an exciting line up of innovative product releases for all our categories comprising air, hotels, bus and cars”