Booking.com Targets India With Payments and Corporate Travel
Booking.com expands in India beyond hotel bookings, launching its own payment system and a self-service tool for small business travel to challenge local rivals.
Stock photo for illustration only, not from the actual event
- Booking.com expands in India by adding its own payment system and corporate travel tools.
- Launches a free tool for startups and SMEs, skipping traditional pre-negotiated corporate rates.
- Shifts to direct payment collection, allowing hotels to choose daily, weekly, or monthly payouts.
- Faces fierce competition from MakeMyTrip, which reported 79,000 active myBiz small-business users.
The travel market in India is pushing global giants like Booking.com to roll out aggressive new strategies to capture a larger share of travelers' wallets beyond basic hotel bookings. The platform is actively working to win over more Indian travelers for both domestic and international trips, while simultaneously expanding into corporate travel for small and mid-sized enterprises and taking firmer control of the booking and payment workflow. Despite these ambitions, the company faces a formidable hurdle in a domestic market heavily dominated by local heavyweights led by MakeMyTrip.
Santosh Kumar, Booking.com's regional head for South Asia, told Skift that for the company to succeed in India over the long haul, it must become significantly more relevant to the Indian booker. While Booking.com has traditionally been recognized primarily for hotel and stay reservations in the region, it is now branching out into new territory. The company is building out its proprietary payments system, providing startups and small businesses with a complimentary booking tool for work trips, and working to retain customers for both leisure and corporate travel needs.
"If we have to look at how we can win India in the longer term, we have to be more relevant to the India booker."
Santosh Kumar, Regional Head for South Asia at Booking.com
Stock photo for illustration only, not from the actual event
A core part of this expansion is the rollout of a self-service business travel tool earlier this year tailored for startups and small-to-medium-sized enterprises. Notably, the platform bypasses traditional pre-negotiated corporate hotel rates. Kumar explained that companies booking fewer than 250 to 300 room nights annually at a single property are much better off utilizing public platform pricing rather than getting bogged down negotiating fixed rates.
Booking.com's push into India with its proprietary payment system and SME-focused corporate tools highlights a strategic effort to overcome the strong foothold of domestic platforms. By bypassing legacy pre-negotiated corporate rates, the company can seamlessly attract agile startups and smaller firms, though it must navigate a crowded ecosystem where local incumbents maintain deep customer loyalty.
On the financial operations front, Booking.com is transitioning India bookings away from the traditional pay-at-hotel model toward collecting payments directly. In doing so, it offers hotels and homestays flexible payout options, allowing them to choose daily, weekly, or monthly disbursements, thereby securing a more deeply integrated role in every transaction. However, the competitive landscape is intensely crowded. MakeMyTrip announced during an earnings call that 79,000 small businesses actively utilize its myBiz platform, marking a 19% year-over-year increase, alongside 550 large enterprises using Quest2Travel. Meanwhile, Yatra continues building out Travel Pro, and Cleartrip introduced Out of Office in early 2024.
Additionally, Kumar noted that ongoing tensions in the Middle East have merely shifted the corridors and routes chosen by Indian outbound travelers rather than dampening overall demand for international travel.
Source: Skift
Found something wrong in this article? Report an issue with this article
Comments
Leave a Comment