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Want to have a fabulous and fantastic trip? Here is your answer. These travel apps can help any traveller in their trips and give much fun like anything. This is the time if you haven’t booked accommodation for your winter trips yet. Whether you’re looking for a local stay, wanting to enjoy a white Christmas in your favorite country or planning to relax on a sandy beach somewhere, there are some great smartphone apps to help you find the right place to stay...
MakeMyTrip
MakeMyTrip fundamentally believes in mobile first and below are some of the services offered by the MMT Mobile app. The MakeMyTrip app gives personalized app experience to its customers with the help of data science and smart recommendation algorithms. Through this users get a fully personalized App home page with a feed based on relevant cards that show the users flight, hotel and home stay recommendations based on their search history, booking behavior, location and user segments. Users who have made a booking, will get personalized content about their booking such as the ability to do a web check-in for their flights, check flight status and know all the relevant information about their journey like knowing terminal information, baggage allowance, weather info etc. With regards to their hotels booked, the customers get the ability to know the directions to the hotel, check in, check out times, MMT Assured hotline, hotel call details, review the hotel post check out, destination weather etc.
Technology
The platform uses multiple technologies like Node.js, java and many others for backend development, Spark for real time data processing, Kafka for stream processing, Couchbase for cache, grafana for performance tracking and zabbix for alerting along with many other technologies.
Services
· Zero cancellation offering on flight tickets
· Fare prediction service for flight fares. We predict the future increase/decrease in fare for user’s search dates and inform the user upfront so that user can make the booking decision accordingly
· A user can do web check-in now in MakeMyTrip app
· MakeMyTrip booking confirmation and e-ticket delivery through WhatsApp
· MakeMyTrip has launched a new product for corporate bookings
Cleartrip
Cleartrip is a leading travel app that offers air, hotel and train travel planning and booking services. With the launch of Cleartrip Local in 2016 it has become the first global travel tech company of scale to offer users an opportunity to discover and engage in hyperlocal leisure activities.
“The app facilitates end-to- end planning and booking travel and in- destination experiences. Fast to load and quick to book interface - Letting its customers do what they need to do faster have been one of the enduring passions for Cleartrip. The app provides a quick 4 step booking process which shows only the relevant information to the user as against distracting banners and advertisements. Its Expressway feature lets users store their traveler profile and payment details safely and securely in the Clear trip Account to enable just one click bookings. Expressway was a first in India, a country where making payments online is complicated and prone to error” says Subramanya Sharma, Chief Marketing Officer and Head of Products give space.
Customers have less time available at hand and use multiple devices while planning travel. The switch from one device to other needs to be seamless.
In- destination experiences as an extension of travel - Gone are the days of travelling to a place and see a couple of common tourist attractions. Travellers today want a closer to real experience of the place. In addition, the trend of doing a trip without travelling is catching up. In- destinations suggestions about what a place has to offer in terms of events and experi-
ences is something customers are looking for.
Attention to post-booking engagement - Post booking engagement is an important part of the ecommerce value chain and a keen focus on optimising the process is key to a positive customer experience. Web- checkin, effortless online cancellation, smart IVR are expectations that customers have of all travel apps today.
Technology
Cleartrip takes a lot of pride in the mobile app that has evolved over the last 5-6 years. Cleartrip was one of the first Indian apps on both major app platforms - android and iOS. It has been at the cutting- edge of both platforms incorporating platform specific features ranging from adapting to design changes, 3D Touch, Apple wallet and message on iOS to app links, smart lock and material design on android. Subramanya Sharma, Chief Marketing Officer and Head of Products at Cleartrip.
This focus on working on the latest and greatest on both platforms has seen Cleartrip featured on both app stores as well as being named the app of the year on iOS in 2014. Cleartrip has also innovated on related platforms such as the iPad and Apple Watch - being first of Indian travel apps to be present on these platforms. In terms of technology, Cleartrip believes in staying true to the platform and build using native toolkits on both platforms staying away from common interfaces that may not be true to the platform.
KAYAK
KAYAK, the world’s leading travel search engine, searches other travel sites to show travelers the information they need to find the right flights, hotels, rental cars and holiday packages. KAYAK website and App also offer smart travel tools to help travelers plan and manage their trip, including Price Alert, Price Forecast and free itinerary management tool, Trips. KAYAK processes over 2 billion consumer queries for travel information a year, and operates more than 100 local sites across 60+ countries and territories and in 20+ languages. KAYAK is an independently managed subsidiary of The Priceline Group.
“KAYAK helps travelers get the information they need before they book and offers tools and features to assist them throughout their trip. The website and mobile app search hundreds of travel sites at once so that travelers have the information they need to make the best decisions” says Abhijit Mishra, Country Director, India, KAYAK.
“KAYAK is different from other travel companies. First, we are not a store, we don’t sell products. We are a travel search engine, and we search other travel sites to provide customers with the information they need to make the right decision on booking their flights, hotels, and even cars” Abhijit adds.
In addition to travel search, we also offer tools that will help travelers with both planning and travel itinerary management:
- Price Forecast helps travelers decide whether to “buy now” or “wait”
- Trips helps travelers organize their bookings/itineraries
- Explore helps you find a destination within your budget Research tells us that the price conscious, smart Indian traveler does intensive research and compares prices before buying a travel package online. This makes our platform relevant for users in India as we offer comprehensive search results. We are a travel search engine, and we search other travel sites to provide customers with the information they need to make the right decision on booking their flights, hotels, and even cars. This enables our users to avail the best prices for their bookings. We believe our excellent product will attract India travelers to use KAYAK and will get them hooked once they experience our one-stop travel solution.
Booking.com
Booking.com provides customers with the ease to book from over 1.4 million accommodation options - from homes, hotels, apartments, resorts, B&B’s and more -from anywhere in the worldat various price points that match their requirements. We also recently launched a feature, Booking Experiences, a highly- curated one stop shop for travel experiences, enabling the customer to book, pay and avoid
queues at a plethora of experiences in destination, from museums to tours and more. We also have 24/7 customer service in 43 languages to resolve any issues faced by our customers. We also provide them with the flexibility to update, cancel their bookings from anywhere and pay as you stay all in one place.
“Booking.com offers flexible payment options, including pay-when-you-stay, which means the customers can reserve online and pay at the property on check out. For accommodation partners, we enablethem to maintain complete control over their businesses, setting their own rates and availability and there is no cost to list the properties on the website. We only charge a commission to the property once we’ve delivered them business, hence listing on Booking.com is arguably one of the most cost- effective ways for hotel and accommodation partners to grow their business and brand globally. This business model provides both the customers and property partners the ease to operate and has enabled Booking.com to grow its business in India” says Vikas Bhola, Head of Indian Sub- Continent, Booking.com.
Services
We have seen an increased appetite for customers to search for travel based on their passions and hobbies, rather than the destination. Hence, we developed the aforementioned Passion Search feature. It enables customers to discover various destinations across the world where they can indulge in their favourite pursuits. Personalized experience also is a big trend that is emerging in the industry, whereby customers want to create their own trip, picking and choosing their desired locations and itineraries themselves via their smartphone, rather than going
TripCase and TripIt
TripCase and TripIt both work in a similar way, which is to compile your travel itinerary from your travel booking confirmation emails. It’s pretty easy to get going, just sign up to an account and then as you make bookings, forward your confirmation emails to a designated email address, and it will automatically compile your itinerary.
TripIt and TripCase will also scan your inbox so any new bookings will be automatically added to your schedule. They’re both free to use, though TripIt has a paid version. TripIt Pro has travel points tracker, flight alerts and airport guides.
Services
Trips can be shared with your travel companions and there’s a social element that allows you to share your travels on social media so others can see your whereabouts while you’re travelling. TripIt and TripCase both have mobile apps (iOS and Android) which is important to give you access to your travel itinerary on the go.
Technology
TripIt and TripCase send a confirmation email when the booking email is scanned and added to your trip itinerary. It’s not a foolproof system, so be prepared to do a bit of editing on the travel details, particularly if the booking confirmation has a lot of text or tables. You may need to adjust hotel checkin and check- out times, for example, to ensure that bookings on the same day are in logical time order and don’t overlap. Booking confirmations from airlines and hotels in standard format are usually imported without needing any adjustment.
See our Tripit tutorial for a step-by-step guide on setting up and using TripIt.