“Is there any other point to which you would wish to draw my attention?”

Holmes: “To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time.”

“The dog did nothing in the night-time.”

“That was the curious incident,” remarked Sherlock Holmes in Silver Blaze.

One would normally not associate the great detective with purchasing habits in the Internet age, but there are certainly some parallels.

When Business Line came upon an AbsolutData Research & Analytics survey, we found one intriguing thing — while 75 per cent of over 800 surveyed recalled travel ads on various Web sites, (see ‘Click scores' table) only 31 per cent recognised the ads pertaining to hotels.

One could, if one were inclined, call it “The Curious Incident Of The Traveller Who Doesn't Like Hotels.” After all, the Net is a great place for deals, so why don't people use combo deals and book both stay and travel together?

A follow-up survey by AbsolutData revealed that 72 per cent of the over 1,000 people surveyed said they did, indeed, like combo deals. And while around 60 per cent said that they preferred to stay in hotels, we still didn't understand why this did not show in the results for online bookings of hotels.

Does this mean that Indians just like the concept of combos but will not opt for them? Is it a case of “I like Goa, but I will go to Paris for my vacation”?

Airline first

Suhale Kapoor, Executive Vice-President and Co-Founder, AbsolutData Research & Analytics, says, “Many people prefer to go to the Web sites of individual hotels because they get better deals that way. We have found that people visit various sites for travel. For example, an online buyer could visit Expedia, MakeMyTrip, and Yatra, apart from visiting the sites of airlines such as Kingfisher and Jet Airways to see where he gets the best deals.”

This means that there is a huge market out there for airlines and hotels to team up and offer killer combos. But not many are doing it, say industry people.

Dan Lynn, Managing Director of Expedia in Asia-Pacific, says, “The first thing that people think about is the airline cost. The hotel comes second.” Lynn adds that there are different types of travellers and while recreational travellers like buying things together, there are a lot of experimental travellers who want to look into travel and hotels independently. “The experimental traveller does not want to go to the same hotel in Goa every year,” he points out.

But this said, Lynn too feels that add-ons are popular and combos are a great way of doing business. “It could range from the mundane, such as arranging for an airport transfer, or the exciting, like arranging for a rickshaw for visiting the Red Fort, or tickets to the Westend shows in London,” he says.

But the chasm between ticket and hotel bookings is wide. For example,Yatra.com claims on its site that it has a volume of 10,000 tickets and 350 rooms a day — which means that, roughly, for every 28 people who book tickets, only one books a hotel. And this, despite Yatra's offer to provide reservations in 3,800 hotels in 336 Indian cities, apart from 90,000 international hotels.

Why are there so few takers for a hotel-plus-travel deal? Says Keyur Joshi, COO and Co-founder, MakeMyTrip, “We agree that online hotel booking is yet to gather pace but it is showing a positive trend, nonetheless.”

Joshi says his company is keen to attract more people to combo deals. “We have facilitated this by providing original pictures, videos, location maps, etc, to help the customer decide better.” He says that while this has boosted bookings significantly, in the last one year, online hotel booking is still in its infancy. Joshi concedes that for every 10 people who booked a ticket, only one booked a hotel. “It's a growing category that requires behaviour change, so the change is taking place but only gradually.”

Railways initiative

eWorld found the chasm between online bookings for tickets and hotels was wider in the case of railways than airways.

The IRCTC (Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Ltd) says that in 2009-10, 43,258 passengers booked IRCTC tour packages (which includes hotel bookings), and in the same period, the number of tickets booked was a staggering 7.2 crore. In 2008-09, IRCTC sold 4.41 crore tickets and 31,943 tour packages, which means that, while online ticket bookings increased by 2.79 crore, the corresponding number of tour increases was just 11,315. The IRCTC also says that currently, the average online ticket bookings per day is 2.5 lakh. It was not able to furnish details on standalone hotel bookings.

But while hotel bookings online have been poor until now, IRCTC plans to try and change that.

It is pushing aggressively to get people to book hotels on its site and is even offering a challenge to customers — if they book a hotel on IRCTC's site and get the same room in the same hotel cheaper, IRCTC will pay the difference. For example, if you book a hotel for Rs 1,000 on IRCTC's site, and you find that the same hotel charges Rs 800 if you book directly, IRCTC will pay you the difference (Rs 200) and also give you 10 per cent of the difference, namely Rs 20.

While IRCTC officials have not told us if such deals have found more takers, the fact that the Railways is involved might make a difference to online hotel bookings, especially since so many people use this mode of transport.

But this said, as long as personal travellers prefer to stay with friends or family and as long as business travellers stay in company guest houses, hotel bookings online will have a tough time coming anywhere close to online ticket bookings.

COSMETICS CHALLENGE

While many people are happy buying movie tickets and airline tickets online, some categories have had little success.

Clothes and cosmetics are two areas where the Web hasn't made too much headway, especially among the “touchy-feely” people, who like to be closely involved with the products they are buying, say industry people. According to an AbsolutData survey, shopping for cosmetics fared dismally — only 26 per cent recalled these ads, only 13 per cent clicked on them, and a very low 6 per cent bought anything online.

“Many people buy airline tickets online because it is the easiest thing to do,” says Suhale Kapoor, Executive Vice-President and Co-Founder, AbsolutData Research & Analytics. “But with something like lipstick, people would like to try it first before buying it.”

Does this mean that trying to sell a cosmetic product online gives you much less chance of clicking? Not necessarily, says Kapoor. “If somebody has been buying a particular brand of lipstick for ten years, they might have no problem buying it online.”

Another factor that could play a part is the cost, says Kapoor. “If you find a dress in a shop for Rs 5,000 and the same dress is available online for Rs 4,000, you may want to buy it online.”

But apparently, such deals are not the norm. AbsolutData's survey of 1,016 respondents found that only 27 per cent preferred to buy online, while the rest preferred to visit a store.

Even among the 27 per cent who wanted to shop online, only 44 per cent wanted to do something new; the rest preferred to buy a tried and tested item online.

> balaji.n@thehindu.co.in

With inputs from Mamuni Das

comment COMMENT NOW