Online travel booking portal MakeMyTrip has launched its own brand of budget rooms Value+, days after blocking OYO Rooms and Zo Rooms from its portal.
Last month, Goibibo, Yatra and MakeMyTrip blocked OYO Rooms and Zo Rooms to protect their turf. After that Goibibo launched its GoStays which is same as Value+.
Value+ hotels provide standardised amenities like free Wi-Fi, air-conditioning, and breakfast starting at Rs. 999, mirroring the standardised models of budget room aggregators that it de-listed from its portal. It has already aggregated around 1,000 hotels under Value+.
MakeMyTrip’s hotels and packages business reported 7.3 per cent increase in revenue less service costs (net revenue) to $13.4 million in the quarter ended September 2015. The Nasdaq listed firm reported 3.6 per cent rise in net revenue for the three months ended September 30, 2015 to $33.2 million from $32 million recorded in the corresponding year-ago quarter.
Rajesh Magow, CEO of MakeMyTrip told ET that the new competitors had a very similar business model as their own, and that it didn’t make long term strategic sense to let them grow. The report adds that the aggregators made 2-3 percent of MakeMyTrip’s daily hotel room sales.
There are over 180 startups in the online travel and destination discovery space, according to a report produced earlier this year by startup data-tracker Tracxn, with around $300 million invested in 40 startups.
