Make My Trip Sticks To Its Guns

Amid widening losses, the online travel agency is determined to continue its focus on the hotels and holiday packages business and foresees profitability in three years.

- Deepti Chaudhary

WHEN NASDAQ-LISTED MAKE MY TRIP announced towards the end of February that it was rekindling its partnership with budget hotel aggregator OYO, it raised many an eyebrow. In October 2015, online travel agencies MakeMyTrip, Goibibo, and Yatra had jointly blocked OYO (then OYO Rooms) and ZO Rooms listings on their website to protect market share.

However, with MakeMyTrip’s focus on hotels to boost growth, it makes sense to patch up with OYO, which has a large base of budget-, economy-, mid-segment-, and vacation rental assets across India, Malaysia, and Nepal. The grapevine has it that MakeMyTrip is evaluating investing in OYO, though the former has refused to comment on this.

India has around 4 million rooms across various price points, of which 96-97% are small hotels, according to OYO estimates. “There has been a massive surge in the budget hotels category, igniting growth in the hospitality sector, and we are excited to join hands with OYO and build synergies in the fragmented hotels segment to serve this very promising market,” said Ritwik Khare, chief business officer, hotel and accommodations, MakeMyTrip, on the OYO partnership.

Clearly, there are no permanent friends or enemies in business. And this is not the first time that MakeMyTrip has made a friend of a rival. In 2016, it acquired ibibo (that runs Goibibo and redBus) in an all-stock transaction, creating India’s largest online travel company worth nearly $1.8 billion (Rs 11,370 crore). It also improved its hotel listings; before the deal, MakeMyTrip offered stays mostly at four- and five-star hotels and a few three-star hotels. The acquisition opened access to Goibibo’s stable of three- and two-star hotels.