 "People today prefer short trips every quarter to a long annual vacation: Samyukth Sridharan")
Customers are indulging heavily in local activities that are opening up a wide array of experiences and unique things to do within city limits, Samyukth Sridharan tells Alokananda Chakraborty
What are the few things every traveller looks for when she is browsing online sites?
Travellers are more discerning now than they have ever been. With the proliferation of technology and smartphone-driven convenience, they have been exposed to the best online/mobile experiences available globally and are now expecting the same cutting-edge experience in their interactions. Some things have not changed, however: the expectation that the pricing is transparent and honest, that content is comprehensive, recommendations are genuine and that there is a helpful hand taking care of them in case something goes awry.
I don't entirely subscribe to that view. In our opinion, keeping our efforts focused on meeting the ever-evolving customer behaviour and their needs will build a business that they will trust and value far more than just focusing on scale. So, while we continue to focus on delivering a refreshingly simple approach to travel through our mobile and desktop solutions, we also continue to evolve, pushing to solve hitherto unsolved problems in the area of aggregation and discoverability of "are there some interesting things for me to do around here?"
In an increasingly mobile-dominated world, consumers are not just looking at where they can travel to, but are also spending time on what they can do around their location when they are not travelling. It is this insight that led us to launch Cleartrip Activities, a first-of-its-kind aggregation of experiences and things to do in your city and in numerous destinations across the country. This feature allows users to browse and book interesting experiences on the Cleartrip app, from a collection of over 8,000 activities across 50 cities spanning both metros and tourist destinations. This hyper-local approach to experiences will give consumers the choice that they are looking for.
To stay ahead, the big OTAs are having to follow their customers as they switch from desktop computers to smartphones and tablets. How is Cleartrip meeting this challenge?
We were geared up for this challenge much before it even came to be known as a "challenge". Our passion to solve customer problems and obsession to keep it simple has meant that we have been at the forefront of several innovations in the online travel space.
In 2012, Cleartrip was the first OTA in the world to invent the unique split-screen search that showed both onward and return flights on the same screen, at once, making the Cleartrip app the easiest way to select flights and see the total price, all on one screen.
Again that same year, Cleartrip became the first OTA in the country to launch Expressway - one-touch bookings for travel. Later that year, Cleartrip was the industry forerunner in launching Quickeys - the first exclusive hotel deals finder for last-minute hotel bookings from the mobile. During 2013, Cleartrip was the one and only Indian OTA to go paperless with passbook support where all Cleartrip itineraries were supported on a passbook.
E-commerce in India has had trouble dealing with customer complaints, and travel is an industry in which the customer demands are high because normal service can be disrupted by all kinds of things. How does Cleartrip deal with this problem?
Cleartrip has always upheld integrity and transparency as important foundational values of our brand. Embracing these values has made it incredibly easy for us to engage with our customers actively across numerous social media channels. We use our social media touch points to engage with customers, gather feedback and improve products, provide troubleshooting and offer customer service. We have multiple cases where extremely irate customers have been vocal on their blogs or Twitter and we've successfully reached out to them, taken care of their problems and turned them from complainers to evangelists.
What would you rate as the biggest breakthrough in the online travel sector and why? What are the biggest problems facing online travel agents right now? Are you prepared to deal with the challenge?
Online travel has evolved considerably in the last couple of years. A major trend was the rapid convergence of the "local" and "travel leisure" consumers, who led us to the development of Cleartrip Activities. Besides that, we've also seen a few breakthrough trends emerge, very distinctly in the travel sector. First, travellers have started to prefer unbundled itineraries to pre-fixed, boxed itineraries. Localisation is a key ask from travellers looking to indulge in more in-city local activities and experiences. Online hotel adoption has seen a considerable jump (from an almost sub-eight per cent to marginally over 15 per cent).
Also, there has been a definite blurring of lines between the local and leisure consumer. Their trip durations have shrunk from taking just one long vacation a year, to enjoying one short vacation every quarter. Customers are also indulging heavily in local activities that are opening up a wide array of experiences and unique things to do within city limits.
What are the few things every traveller looks for when she is browsing online sites?
Travellers are more discerning now than they have ever been. With the proliferation of technology and smartphone-driven convenience, they have been exposed to the best online/mobile experiences available globally and are now expecting the same cutting-edge experience in their interactions. Some things have not changed, however: the expectation that the pricing is transparent and honest, that content is comprehensive, recommendations are genuine and that there is a helpful hand taking care of them in case something goes awry.
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Online travel is an industry in which size counts. The scale of Expedia, TripAdvisor and Makemytrip means they can sign up more hotels, and negotiate better prices, than their smaller rivals. What does Cleartrip offer its consumers that others don't?
I don't entirely subscribe to that view. In our opinion, keeping our efforts focused on meeting the ever-evolving customer behaviour and their needs will build a business that they will trust and value far more than just focusing on scale. So, while we continue to focus on delivering a refreshingly simple approach to travel through our mobile and desktop solutions, we also continue to evolve, pushing to solve hitherto unsolved problems in the area of aggregation and discoverability of "are there some interesting things for me to do around here?"
In an increasingly mobile-dominated world, consumers are not just looking at where they can travel to, but are also spending time on what they can do around their location when they are not travelling. It is this insight that led us to launch Cleartrip Activities, a first-of-its-kind aggregation of experiences and things to do in your city and in numerous destinations across the country. This feature allows users to browse and book interesting experiences on the Cleartrip app, from a collection of over 8,000 activities across 50 cities spanning both metros and tourist destinations. This hyper-local approach to experiences will give consumers the choice that they are looking for.
To stay ahead, the big OTAs are having to follow their customers as they switch from desktop computers to smartphones and tablets. How is Cleartrip meeting this challenge?
We were geared up for this challenge much before it even came to be known as a "challenge". Our passion to solve customer problems and obsession to keep it simple has meant that we have been at the forefront of several innovations in the online travel space.
In 2012, Cleartrip was the first OTA in the world to invent the unique split-screen search that showed both onward and return flights on the same screen, at once, making the Cleartrip app the easiest way to select flights and see the total price, all on one screen.
Again that same year, Cleartrip became the first OTA in the country to launch Expressway - one-touch bookings for travel. Later that year, Cleartrip was the industry forerunner in launching Quickeys - the first exclusive hotel deals finder for last-minute hotel bookings from the mobile. During 2013, Cleartrip was the one and only Indian OTA to go paperless with passbook support where all Cleartrip itineraries were supported on a passbook.
E-commerce in India has had trouble dealing with customer complaints, and travel is an industry in which the customer demands are high because normal service can be disrupted by all kinds of things. How does Cleartrip deal with this problem?
Cleartrip has always upheld integrity and transparency as important foundational values of our brand. Embracing these values has made it incredibly easy for us to engage with our customers actively across numerous social media channels. We use our social media touch points to engage with customers, gather feedback and improve products, provide troubleshooting and offer customer service. We have multiple cases where extremely irate customers have been vocal on their blogs or Twitter and we've successfully reached out to them, taken care of their problems and turned them from complainers to evangelists.
What would you rate as the biggest breakthrough in the online travel sector and why? What are the biggest problems facing online travel agents right now? Are you prepared to deal with the challenge?
Online travel has evolved considerably in the last couple of years. A major trend was the rapid convergence of the "local" and "travel leisure" consumers, who led us to the development of Cleartrip Activities. Besides that, we've also seen a few breakthrough trends emerge, very distinctly in the travel sector. First, travellers have started to prefer unbundled itineraries to pre-fixed, boxed itineraries. Localisation is a key ask from travellers looking to indulge in more in-city local activities and experiences. Online hotel adoption has seen a considerable jump (from an almost sub-eight per cent to marginally over 15 per cent).
Also, there has been a definite blurring of lines between the local and leisure consumer. Their trip durations have shrunk from taking just one long vacation a year, to enjoying one short vacation every quarter. Customers are also indulging heavily in local activities that are opening up a wide array of experiences and unique things to do within city limits.