Skift Take
EaseMyTrip realized early on that the convenience fee is perhaps the most inconvenient part of travel bookings and were willing to let go of it in return for loyal customers.
Having started as a mom-and-pop travel agency, EaseMyTrip today figures among the largest online travel agencies (OTA) in India with a market capitalization of $1.1 billion while being completely bootstrapped.
And Prashant Pitti, the EaseMyTrip co-founder, said this has a lot to do with its “no convenience fee” model that has helped the company earn a high volume of return users.
The convenience charge or booking fee is a standard among all online travel agencies and airlines in India.
In its filing with the Indian market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India, in 2021, the company claimed to have overtaken Yatra.com, in gross booking volume and revenue, to become the second largest online travel agency in India.
Having started in 2008 as an offline market for travel agents EaseMyTrip, founded by the three Pitti brothers — Prashant, Rikant and Nishant, entered the consumer business three years later.
Pitti said they understood pretty soon that most of the travel business would move online. However, venture capitalists were not ready to back them up as the Indian online travel market was already populated by companies like MakeMyTrip, Cleartrip, Yatra and GoIbibo.
However, the travel agency experi