Paytm, Booking.com partner to expand accommodation choices for customers

Paytm has partnered with Booking.com to facilitate accommodation bookings on its online travel marketplace. Under this partnership, all domestic and international accommodations available on Booking.com will now be available on Paytm with unique promotions and offers.

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 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.

"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," said Vice President - Paytm, Abhishek Rajan.

"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," said Director Strategic partnerships APAC at Booking.com, David Peller.

Paytm's travel marketplace enables users to book hotels, flights, trains and

bus tickets in a fast, secure and convenient manner. The company is the first horizontal e-commerce major to enter into Travel business, a domain that has hitherto been dominated by vertical players.

In Jan 2017, Paytm claimed to have crossed USD 500 million in annualized GMV, emerging as a significant player in the travel industry. The company has announced that it will invest Rs.300 crore to further grow this business. The company is also looking to ramp up its Bengaluru based Travel marketplace team to over 250 people in next two quarters.