MakeMyTrip Returns to Profit and Highlights From Recent Results

MakeMyTrip said Tuesday that all its travel segments have now grown past pre-pandemic levels, and that it posted its highest-ever quarterly gross bookings at $1.98 billion.

Here are other highlights from the online travel agency’s quarterly results:

A return to profits: In domestic packages, MakeMyTrip observed a 54% increase in average room nights. It generated revenue of $196.7 million in the quarter, an increase of 38%.

Its profit for the period was $18.6 million versus a loss of $10 million during the same quarter last year.

More inventory for homestay properties: Exploring opportunities to survive in a post-pandemic world and adding new areas of growth, MakeMyTrip has doubled down on building its inventory of homestay properties. 

“There has been a lot of the work on the expansion of domestic hotel supply specifically on homestays and then building home front-end capabilities and also building host applications dedicated for the host,”  said Rajesh Magow, co-founder and group CEO of MakeMyTrip during a conference call Tuesday.

New AI tool: MakeMyTrip rolled out a voice chat service powered by artificial intelligence. The voice assistant is designed to help users book flights and holidays by offering personalized and relevant information to the user without having to scroll through multiple reviews. 

Demand for pilgrimage destinations: The company has also been witnessing strong traction for pilgrimage destinations such as Puri, Varanasi, Rishikesh and Vrindavan — a trend that Oyo had also noted last year based on its booking data.

Catering to Price Sensitive Tourists: Last month, the company also launched a new feature ‘Incredible India Incredible Prices’, offering results based on the most economical airfare to multiple destinations within India from the origin city over a six-month period. Users can filter the most economical flight according to the month of travel and theme-based travel categories. 

“The early results are encouraging as we have observed 2.5 times increases in searches for leisure destinations on the Incredible India funnel as compared to the regular flight funnel,” said Magow.

New Offerings for Students: MakeMyTrip also launched a student offering for international flights in June, coinciding with the commencement of academic session during the period. For Indian students traveling abroad, the company partnered with airlines for extra baggage and competitive student fares; banks for exclusive discounts; and discounted forex cards. 

Holiday Packages: During the quarter, the company partnered with Madrid-based tour agency Europamundo for bringing the latter’s international holiday packages in India online. With this partnership, over 600 new itineraries will be added to MakeMyTrip’s existing catalog of nearly 5,000 holiday package options.