TravTalk India Online Magazine
In order to expand its distribution reach, the OTA giant has now given access to its entire inventory to travel agents via the myPartner platform. Access will be granted at no fee for the time being, this being the only gateway for them to MakeMyTrip’s (MMT) inventory.
Hazel Jain
MakeMyTrip.com has launched a new platform that will give travel agents access to its entire inventory. Rajesh Magow, Co-Founder and Group CEO, MakeMyTrip, says, “We have built a robust inventory over the years, especially in the accommodation space both in the domestic as well as international market. The idea behind this new product is to give access to all this rich content to travel agents, which is not necessarily available freely in the market today. A lot of people are seeing it more as an opportunity to be able to work together and ride on the work that we have done in terms of technology and content, and leverage that for their own clients. Hopefully, this will help them bring back their own business sooner.”
He adds that with this new product, the travel agents can upgrade their technology and ride the digital wave. “This B2B2C foray will also allow agents to use our technology to service their customers. They will now be able to access around 77,000 hotels in India via our platform, and if we include alternative accommodation, that number goes up to 100,000 hotels. Internationally, we have around 500,000 properties listed as of today,” Magow adds.
Explaining the commission structure for this, Vipul Prakash, Chief Operating Officer, MakeMyTrip, says, “Our policy is very clear on this. This is the travel agents’ business and we are just playing a role of giving them a service. So the hotel will charge a rate to the travel agent and they can decide how much they want to sell it for to their client. We don’t want to dictate or interfere with their business model. We are just bringing them the inventory at a particular rate and they can decide how much they want to charge and the entire communication will be between them and their customers.”
With myPartner, agents will get a user log-in and it will be at no fee at the moment. Prakash adds, “We are not going to encourage any offline changes. The system takes care of this. We have perfected this over the last few years with our B2C business. If they need to make any booking changes for their clients, it can be made on myPartner by the agents and our back-end will take care of the rest.”
What myPartner offers agents
- Makes MMT’s entire inventory available to them
- No need to talk to hotels to make booking changes
- Personalisation of itineraries
- One-click access to all booking and payment records
- Invoices available at a single click
