Expedia to expand India team, launch loyalty programme

The online travel firm will launch a loyalty programme even as it focuses more on domestic hotels

Online travel services company Expedia will launch a loyalty programme in the last quarter of calendar 2015 to attract and retain customers, managing director (Asia) Vikram Malhi said Friday. It will also hire more than 400 people in its research, product development and sales teams in India over the next two years, .

Globally, Expedia is the largest among online travel portals, as measured by gross booking value. However, it has not been aggressive in India, focusing more on margins rather than market share. It also does not disclose India specific revenue or market share.

"Other companies in the space are quite aggressive in discounting. But I do not think this is sustainable in the long run. We are not chasing market share and instead we are investing in products and technology features. We are investing in our mobile app and are growing at three digit rate in India," Malhi said.

Expedia has a far larger focus on hotel distribution than its rivals; this part of the business accounts for about 70-80% revenue. It is also growing its focus on domestic hotels business, whereas until a few years ago over 65% of its hotel revenue in India was from bookings for overseas properties. Now, the domestic sales account for half of the hotel revenue.

"We have recently launched loyalty programmes in Japan and Singapore and we will launch it in India in fourth quarter of 2015 and this will allow Indian customers to earn and redeem points for transactions on Expedia and avail of special deals and discounts," he said.