Flipkart ventures into hotel-booking business

BENGALURU:  Ahead of the festive season, Walmart-backed ecommerce firm Flipkart on Tuesday launched its new hotel-booking feature, Flipkart Hotels. This comes more than a year after Flipkart’s acquisition of travel booking portal Cleartrip.

Flipkart said customers can book hotel rooms across 3 lakh domestic and international hotels. Backed by Cleartrip’s API (application programming interface), Flipkart Hotels will benefit from Cleartrip’s understanding of travel customers and sectors.

Available on the Flipkart app, Flipkart Hotels aims to provide improved service to its customers. With a surge in demand - both in the domestic as well as international accommodation market - the travel industry has been gaining traction in recent months.

“New travel trends like exploring lesser-known destinations, workations, long stays, and vacation rentals are becoming mainstream. These developments are giving a boost to the travel industry. Given 70% growth in the last quarter compared to a CAGR of 60% over the last two years, the next festive quarter is expected to be even better for the overall travel industry,” Flipkart said.

Recently, the ecommerce firm launched Flipkart Flights. Adarsh Menon, senior  vice-president at Flipkart, said, “Flipkart Flight is on a steady path of growth in the travel industry since we entered this space. With Flipkart Hotels, we are strengthening our commitment to provide a better experience and superior service to our customers across metros and beyond tiers.”