Paytm has acquired a Noida-based last-minute hotel booking platform called NightStay which offers deals on last-minute bookings at luxury hotels.
The deal marks Paytm re-entry into hotel booking business. Now, Nightstay founder Nasr Khan will lead Paytm’s hotel booking services. Earlier, it was headed by Nitin Misra, who is now leading Consumer Lending and Digital Gold divisions at Paytm
Alibaba backed Payments Company has partnered with more than 5,000 hotels across the budget, luxury and business segments. Paytm said it plans to invest Rs 500 crore in scaling up its travel operation.
Paytm’s hotel partners include chains like Sarovar, Zuri, Treebo, Indian Hotels Co’s Ginger, Sterling and Vresorts.
The company said it aims to reach 2 million hotels and alternative accommodations globally and become Asia’s top hotel-booking destination by 2020.
The chief financial officer at Paytm, Madhur Deora said, “We want to offer the broadest travel selection on our platform, and look forward to continuing our expansion with the help of our trusted travel partners.”
For the uninitiated, NightStay offers unsold hotel rooms to consumers with steep discounts in real time, across a dozen cities including Delhi (NCR), Bengaluru, Mumbai, Pune and Chandigarh among others.
With the entry of hotel booking business Paytm will be competing with MakeMyTrip, Yatra, Goibibo, Cleartrip, and others.
