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Paytm has launched domestic hotel booking service and will be investing Rs 500 crore for scaling its operations and expanding the portfolio. The company has also acquired Nightstay, a luxury hotel-booking platform for an undisclosed amount. In the first phase of the launch, the company has partnered with over 5000 hotels across the budget, luxury and business segments. These include the Zuri, Sarovar, Treebo, Vresorts, Sterling, Ginger and Bloomrooms across top cities. With the acquisition, Paytm will leverage Nightstay’s acumen to further expand its portfolio in this vertical. Nasr Khan, founder, NightStay will be leading this category at Paytm and will be responsible for the overall growth and development as well. Paytm Travel, which had started in 2014, sells over 60 million tickets a year, and has become the leading player for IRCTC tickets, bus tickets, and flight bookings. Earlier this year, Paytm Travel also started offering foreign exchange bookings for international travellers. “The momentum we’re building in our travel vertical is remarkable, with leading positions in rail, bus and flight bookings. The launch of domestic hotel bookings is an important step forward as it will help travellers around the country conveniently plan and book their perfect trip on Paytm. We want to offer the broadest travel selection on our platform, and look forward to continuing our expansion with the help of our trusted travel partners,” Madhur Deora, Chief Financial Officer, Paytm said. Paytm aims at having two million hotels and alternate accommodations globally, with the availability of 50 million rooms within the first 18 months.

Travelport has announced that it had won a competitive tender process undertaken by Air India for the sole provision of distribution of its domestic flight content. The contract awarded to Travelport will begin to come into effect from November 2018 and be fully implemented by the end of 2019. The agreement confirms Air India’s continued deployment of Travelport Rich Content and Branding, now used by over 270 airlines. This displays airlines’ graphical content, their fares families and a full range of ancillary products. Travelport has seen a rapid expansion in India in recent years following the acquisition of business from the largest online travel agencies like MakeMyTrip, Ibibo, Yatra, EaseMyTrip and ClearTrip as well as working with the major corporate travel agencies and new entrants to the travel sector such as Paytm. Pradeep Singh Kharola, Chairman and Managing Director, Air India, said, “Air India is pleased to award this important contract to Travelport. In written submissions and in discussion with their team, the company demonstrated a clear understanding of our needs and displayed impressive technological and financial capability. As we make the switch to Travelport, we hope to be able to deliver even better value for money and a superior distribution to our customers in India and abroad.” Gordon Wilson, President and CEO, Travelport, commented, “Travelport is delighted to have been selected by Air India to provide these services. It is another welcome endorsement of our technology and our services in India. We look forward to implementing the agreement and delivering a world-class service to the airline.”

Under this partnership, all domestic and international accommodations available on Booking.com will now be available on Paytm with unique promotions and offers. The company’s latest partnership will complement its aggressive efforts to tap into this segment while enabling Booking.com to offer its wide assortment of over 1.1 million accommodation options to Paytm’s 200 million strong wallet user base. Commenting on the occasion, Abhishek Rajan, Vice President – Paytm said, “Paytm’s travel marketplace has been focused on offering a seamless experience across the widest range of booking options. Our partnership with Booking.com will help us offer our customers the choice to book from over a million accommodation options across the world at the most attractive prices.” David Peller, Director Strategic partnerships, APAC at Booking.com, added, “There’s never been a more compelling need for digital payments and the removal of friction caused by payments in ecommerce in India. As the world’s leading online accommodation platform, we’re happy to partner with Paytm to enable their customers to effortlessly select the perfect place to stay, anywhere in the world.” The online hotel booking service on Paytm has seen a major uptake in bookings since last year owing to increasing mobile penetration and adoption.

The second edition of Phocuswright India 2017 held from Feb 28-Mar 2 saw leaders from travel technology and travel-related segments gather in Gurugram where the latest trends in the industry were discussed, new talents nurtured and networking opportunities forged. Simon Lehmann, President, Phocuswright informed that over 400 participants were welcomed and added, “We saw a great turnout that could have been better, but it was a good response nonetheless. The sessions on Centre Stage that featured the likes of Google, Yatra and Paytm were effective crowd pullers and saw a lot of valuable exchange of ideas and information on the new travel technology trends.” Some of the highlights of the event include discussions on the future of business travel, alternate stays and the growth of budget accommodation, along with interviews with Expedia, Uber, Makemytrip & Ibibo, Booking.com, to name a few.

Paytm has partnered with Indian Railway Catering & Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) that will allow Paytm users to book train tickets online on Paytm’s App and website. The flights booking service on Paytm has been growing at 4x rate month-on-month since its launch in May. In line with its vision to build the country’s largest travel booking destination, the company has now launched online train ticket bookings in partnership with IRCTC. Speaking on the partnership, Abhishek Rajan, Vice President, Paytm said, “At Paytm, our endeavor is to solve for every need of a traveller. Our alliance with IRCTC is a major leap as it completes the spectrum of air, road and rail ticket booking solutions available on Paytm. This is a significant milestone in our efforts to build India’s largest travel marketplace.” The Indian travel market has seen exponential growth over the past many years. The Indian travel market is estimated to be worth $40 billion by 2020, according to an IBEF study. Paytm is determined to leverage the power of mobile to fuel this growth.

Registering over 1 million flight and bus ticket bookings on its travel marketplace in August, Paytm will further invest Rs 300 crore on its travel business as it plans to launch new categories and ancillaries owing to its exponential growth. The flight bookings have been driving a 4X month-on-month growth and the company expects twice the growth over the next six months. Paytm’s bus tickets segment recently turned break-even while the hotels section is expected to break-even soon. Abhishek Rajan, Vice President, Paytm, said, “We have seen exponential growth in all categories and will soon offer new services to our customers. Leveraging Paytm’s significant market penetration and strong brand proposition, we hope to grow India’s online travel booking pie by introducing new customers from tier II, III towns and cities to this category.”