While booking a hotel online, customer reviews in reference to quality and service of the hotel are what we base our decision upon. On one hand, satisfactory customer profiles result in an affirmation, but a bad review poses a negative impact. In order to expedite quality hotel search for clients, MakeMyTrip is soon to launch a new concept called ‘Assured Hotels’.
The hotels labeled as ‘Assured Hotels’ will largely be across three, four and five-star categories and qualified under certain parameters such as quality of reviews and service. The service will initially cover 5,500 hotels and is supposed to be launched today, via a fresh TV commercial. With the development of a new label, MakeMyTrip hopes to address its customer concerns while booking hotels on their platform.
Apart from the guarantee of an excellent service, the clients who book these hotels can reach out to the MakeMyTrip helpdesk for any issues 24 x 7. The company claims to resolve the matter within a duration of 60 minutes or else your stay will be free. Talking about the latest initiative with ET, Saujanya Shrivastava, group chief marketing officer at MakeMyTrip said,
Assured Hotels is a MakeMyTrip promise of an amazing stay experience, which is a guarantee. It is about awesome rooms, great service and a 24/7 hotline.
The parameters for the judgment of such hotels include clearly tagged locations, recently updated pictures, neighborhood guides and clear policies among others. These benchmarks will serve as the basis for authenticity and assist travellers in making the right choice. Moreover, Shrivastava emphasized that hotels rated greater than 4 out of 5 would make the cut on the basis of the ratings and recent online reviews.
MakeMyTrip sought the idea of clearly demarcating its best-rated hotels so as to further its online penetration in India’s fragmented travel industry. Currently, the hotel market is very fragmented and online penetration is 15%. There is unfamiliarity with regards to online booking and a perceived lack of human interface. Witnessing the potential, the e-travel space still holds, the platform tapped the valid opportunity. Speaking in the same context, Shrivastava added,
Being the leading online travel agent, the task of category expansion is upon us and we need to allay these fears. One needs to give compelling reasons to customers to start booking online.
The list of Assured Hotels includes popular stay destinations such as Fairmont Jaipur, Zuri Whitefield in Bengaluru and Lakeside Chalet by Marriott in Mumbai. In order to further spread their new offering with word of mouth, the company plans to use its IPL sponsorship. In a similar attempt, the platform previously introduced features such as pay at check out and zero cancellation.
The company recently completed the merger of its business with Naspers Group-owned ibibo. The merger marked one of the rarest deals showcasing alliance of two of India’s largest travel booking portals. With the merger, many big travel brands like MakeMyTrip, goibibo, redBus, Ryde and Rightstay have now come under a single entity. Together, they all have processed 34.1 million transactions during the financial year 2016.
