MakeMyTrip, Yatra, Cleartrip look beyond offers and discount-led pitches

Loyalty on the radar, online travel agents sharpen the hook

Travel companies are looking at different ways to retain and reward customers in a highly competitive, price-sensitive Indian market. Especially since Indian travellers are brand conscious and show a greater proclivity for loyalty, behavioural reports indicate. A recent survey by Google and Ipsos found that consumers in India are more brand conscious than their counterparts in Australia and Japan, with 75 per cent of them looking to book all of their travel through same company. 

“Around 72 per cent of transactions on our platform are done through repeat customers,” said Sharat Dhall, chief operating officer (B2C), Yatra. To attract and retain customers, Dhall said the firm curates travel experiences and focuses on a convenient experience for travellers. One such feature allows customers to book mid-budget and premium hotels with anytime check-in/check-out options and customers pay for the time they actually use the room.

Market leader MakeMyTrip said loyalty has been its focus for a while. “With easy availability of choices and value-conscious consumers, loyalty today is a hard ask. The only way in which we have managed to grow our repeated-user base is by staying customer centric,” said Rajesh Magow, co-founder and India CEO of MakeMyTrip. The firm said it has redesigned two loyalty programmes based on usage and feedback from travellers. “Our focus remains on incentivising these programmes in a way that it ring fences our loyal user base by offering them the most rewarding travel-linked offerings,” he added. The loyalty programme has over a million members, and offers free cancellations of air tickets and hotel bookings, among other benefits.

An industry veteran however is sceptical of these efforts, saying that all Indian customers truly want is the best price. For service, they still rely on the local travel agent. For the digital players this is a challenge, especially in the midst of slowing air travel growth, increased competition and pressure on profit margins. Domestic air travel growth has slowed down to 2.6 per cent in first five months of 2019 after 50 months of double digit growth. online portals have over 70 per cent of domestic air tickets market in India, but their share in international ticket sales is still low. 

Ashish Dhruva, vice president (marketing), Cleartrip said that they have invested in innovative features such as specialised solutions for multi-city bookings aand so on. Cleartrip said it uses data and machine learning to understand consumer intent to travel. “We are also continuously investing in leveraging cutting-edge tech in homes to drive travel-related micro-moments since the planning phase for most trips begins at home. Users can quickly check their travel options by asking questions of home assistants such as Amazon Echo or Google Home, before discussing themselves and picking the one that most suits their specific requirements,” Dhruva said. The attempt is to streamline the booking process and keep the traveller coming back for more.

Chetan Kapoor, co-founder of boutique travel advisory firm Videc pointed out that while Indian travellers are brand conscious, travel companies can’t ignore the price focus either. “Indian consumers are brand conscious as they are wary of trusting unknown brands, but brand affinity depends upon price,” he said. Loyalty comes at a huge price for online travel operators.