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Online booking is transforming the way we plan our travel. makemytrip.com claims to offer the lowest fares and the widest range of options

PHOTO: KAMAL NARANG

THOROUGH PLANNING Deep Kalra: `We are fully integrated with the airlines inrealtime.'

There were days when planning a holiday was a task in itself. First was figuring out a destination, then standing in queues to book your rail tickets in advance, then plan your accommodation and finally figure out transportation when you get to your destination. Thus more ofte than not a narrative of your holiday experience could be a small book in itself. But now the Internet is revolutionising the very idea of the way we plan our travel. One portal where you can plan the a-z of your trip is www.makemytrip.com

The online ticketing revolution in India really took off with the budget airlines in the country aggressively promoting the facility. Even the Indian Railways now has an online ticketing arm. And rising Internet penetration and credit card usage means that now we have online travel agents (OTAs) replacing traditional travel agents who operated out of offices. Makemytrip-com is one such agent.

It was launched back in the year 2000 to mainly cater to the India-travel needs of the NRI community in U.S.A. But in September 2005 the company launched an India-specific portal. It is the brainchild of IIM graduate and entrepreneur Deep Kalra.

Informed customers

"We started doing U.S.-India travel first because the market in India was not yet ready. Now with increasing Internet and credit card usage, the country is ready. We want people to make a simple informed travel purchase. They can research and buy travel. Our India site has 200 to 250 hotels, over 100 packages and over 2,000 flight tickets."

OTAs like traditional travel agents make money through commissions, and interestingly something called mark-ups. A mark-up is basically a concept where the OTA does a deal with an operator and then tries to sell it for a higher price to the consumer, keeping the extra money made. For example an OTA will guarantee a hotel Rs. 5,000 for a room and whatever extra they can get for the room from the consumer, is theirs. The extra amount is derived after careful margin calculations.

Lowest fares

Makemytrip.com's USP is its guarantee of finding the lowest airfare in Indian skies. In fact it has a search engine called FarePundit that does the job of only finding lowest fares.

"With so many airlines, consumers are confused. You have to open each airline's website to know the lowest fare. But the deals often change by the minute and before you finish comparing, the prices would have changed. So we provide a common platform where you can have all options in one display. We can guarantee that we are fully integrated with the airlines in real time. We show fares in real time and people can make their choice then," says Kalra, while adding that booking online in his site has a unique advantage.

"OTAs are quite powerful as you can book everything from one space. Your flight, hotel and then the cab to pick you up from the airport."

Kalra says that Internet bookings in India are set for big growth and points to the example of the U.S. where 53 per cent air tickets are booked online. But he is unhappy that the Indian Railways is not accessible to agents like him and hopes things will change in the future.

"Look at the Indian Railway's online booking service, IRCTC, for an example of growth. It's basically convenience, no more queues or filling forms. People are willing to pay for that. We hope to have 1,000 hotels available soon on our site. The advantage with us is that when you book a room, it is booked. The hotel will not cancel your booking. Some people logon to our site just to book hotels. In India the number one in booking online is Bangalore, followed by Mumbai and Delhi. It is probably a reflection of where the early users came from. As for our future ideas, we want a transaction site and also content. We plan to start blogs on our site soon."

ANAND SANKAR

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