Here’s what the travel and hotel industries are doing to attract customers

In a bid to bump-up their businesses, Indian hotel and travel companies are now offering last-moment booking services. The special deals majorly are to make-up for the current fall in the sales, discloses an Economic Times report.

These last-minute bookings or check-ins made within 48 hours provide 10-50% of the total hotel bookings in India. Over one third bookings made in Lemon Tree Hotel’s last-minute check-in are 20-25% of Park Hotels. Sarovar Hotels, however, witnessed a 50-60% growth in this category in the last one year.

Patu Keswani, chairman and managing director of Lemon Tree Hotels says, "In the current environment, where all India occupancies are around 60 per cent, the last-minute bookings are very significant."

Dilip Puri, managing director (India) and regional VP (South Asia) at Starwood Hotels & Resorts said that around 20% bookings at a hotel chain tend to be made at the last minute. "We are seeing consistent growth in the use of mobile phones to make hotel reservations," he further said.

Industry professionals believe that last-minute bookings assume more significance for hotels during off-season. For instance, during monsoon, when people travel lesser and there is a drop in travel business. Last-minute booking boosts occupancy by 15-20% and here is what hotels basically do. They offer attractive deals like up to 60% discount or special packages just to perk-up occupancy.

"Being a perishable inventory for hotels, the revenue from room nights unsold is lost forever," said Amit Taneja, chief revenue officer at travel portal Cleartrip.

For travel portal Goibibo, 55% of hotel bookings are reserved for last-minute check-ins. "This number used to be 20 per cent a year ago," said Ashish Kash yap, group CEO, Ibibo.
Image: indiatimes