Hotels, buses would contribute more than half of our biz: Cleartrip CEO

The Flipkart-owned travel tech firm said that categories such as flights, hotels and buses together are an opportunity worth $80 billion

Cleartrip, the online travel tech company owned by Flipkart, is setting its sights on expanding new verticals, including hotels, buses, and cabs, in addition to its core domain of domestic and international flight booking. The company revived its hotel vertical last year, and according to Ayyappan R., chief executive officer of Cleartrip, these combined categories present an $80 billion opportunity.

"Hotels and buses are going to play a massive role in the journey of us scaling up in the next few quarters," Ayyappan stated.

Over time, he envisions these new services contributing more than 50 per cent of Cleartrip's business. Compared to the highly penetrated market of flight booking, there are numerous opportunities in the hotel and bus sectors. These include helping customers find suitable hotels and rooms, building a robust rating system, and making the bus segment more organised and user-friendly.

"We believe hotels and buses are under-penetrated and are still less than 25 per cent of the penetration on OTAs (online travel agencies)," Ayyappan explained. "The potential to grow and scale up is quite massive. We believe we would be able to acquire a lot of first-time customers who have never booked a hotel or a bus online."

Part of Cleartrip's expansion strategy includes reaching out to tier-two and tier-three cities in the country, which are under-penetrated.

Additionally, Cleartrip is piloting a cab service in select cities in India, encompassing airport and out-of-station taxis. The company plans to partner with third-party providers. "We are looking forward to entering it full scale," Ayyappan noted. "We won't own the cabs, but we will ensure that we are offering better quality and a 100 per cent reliable service without any cancellations for the customers."

The resurgence in travel continues robustly, with 82 per cent of Indians intending to travel during the summer season, as per Oyo's summer vacation index for 2023. Moreover, the COVID travel restriction-induced trend of exploring Indian locations remains strong, with 92 per cent planning domestic trips.

"People are travelling every weekend, and they want to explore new places, not just traditional locations such as Goa and Kerala," said Ayyappan.

To further enhance its flight booking business, Cleartrip has partnered with Axis Bank to offer travel benefits to all existing and new Axis Bank credit cardholders booking through the platform. Under this collaboration, customers will enjoy various privileges for domestic flight bookings, including discounts on seat bookings up to Rs 1,200, complimentary meals up to Rs 500, exemptions from convenience fees, and the ability to cancel and reschedule flights for Rs 1 under CT FlexMax.

"This unique proposition truly sets us apart in the market and is set to benefit close to 12.5 million customers," Ayyappan concluded.