As we march into 2022 with renewed vigour and hope for a healthy future, we have embraced the new normal by finding comfort in new ways of life. The world as we knew it has undergone major transformations and so has the world of travel too. Today, travellers demand a unique and immersive travel experience that comes with a promise of flexibility, convenience and a hassle-free end-to-end travelling experience.

To cater to the evolved demands of travellers, MakeMyTrip, India’s leading online travel company has rolled out a range of product innovations and updates. From new booking features for flyers, to guaranteeing a trip in case of an unconfirmed ticket for train passengers, to introducing a self-serve option on the platform that provides a centralized view of all travel-related information at one place and more – the company introduced new features on its app and website with a promise to make discovering, planning, booking and travelling more easy, convenient, flexible and seamless for customers. In parallel, MakeMyTrip launched an industry-first platform for third-party travel agents with an aim to assist them in serving their customers better.

Here’s a list of top tech-enabled travel innovations launched by MakeMyTrip for customers and the
partner ecosystem –

Offering more flexibility and ease in travel planning and booking
Flight Price Lock to guarantee airfare hike protection and make travel planning stress-free. An industry-first feature, Flight Price Lock allows customers to lock flight fares for up to seven days while they firm up their travel plans. Built on data-driven capabilities and AI-rich airfare forecasting tools, the feature secures travellers against airfare volatility –enabling flyers to save more by locking airfares at attractive rates.

By offering more time to book travel to its flyers, Flight Price Lock also helps to solve for one of the major dilemmas of travellers – should they book tickets or wait and consequently risk fare hike.

My Trips, a unique self-serve option for anything travel-related
The in-app feature provides a centralized view with access and control to all travel-related data.
From sourcing information pertaining to previous or upcoming trips, to making any last-minute
modifications in the travel booking, to raising refund requests, downloading invoices – travellers now
have full access and control of their bookings, in just a few taps.

MySafety, a safety-first program with hotel partners
Safety & hygiene is no longer a good-to-have option, it is the first parameter that travellers look for when planning and booking travel. And, this shall remain a top priority for travellers even when the pandemic will be far behind us. To assure superior standards of safety and hygiene for travellers during their stay, the company in collaboration with its hotel partners announced MySafety, comprehensive safety compliance & audit program conceptualized and designed in accordance with the guidelines of WHO and the Government of India.

Assuring driver and riders safety in cabs
To ensure the safety of the driver-partner and the rider during a cab journey, MakeMyTrip launched an AI-powered feature called ‘Optical Recognition’ on the app available on the driver partner’s phone. The
tech-proprietary tool ensures that the driver-partner can only start the trip after proper mask usage is detected via a selfie. The feature leverages optical character recognition technology to ensure the presence of sanitisers in the cabs as well.

COVID-19 insurance guarantees added safety during these times
Securing yourself and your loved ones with an additional layer of safety helps make travel planning and the post-travelling experience stress-free and comfortable. As the world upended during the pandemic, MakeMyTrip rolled out an option for COVID-19 insurance to secure travellers against any risk of infection during the trip. The option provides coverage of INR 2 lacs (per customer) along with other benefits such as zero restrictions on room rent, consumables, post-hospitalization diagnostics etc. The insurance also covers hospitalization for 16 days post-travel in case of infection as it usually takes 14-15 days for the virus to surface.

Empowering local travel agents to serve their customers better
myPartner: The company launched a dedicated platform, myPartner for travel agents to empower and assist them in offering seamless and enhanced travel booking experiences to travellers. The intuitive and user-friendly platform has been designed to help offline, local travel agents embrace digitization and offer access to one of the widest selections of online travel inventory. With real-time access to an inventory spanning across all travel segments, local agents in tier II, III markets and beyond will be able to simplify and provide transparency throughout the booking process to travellers, while providing more travel options than ever before.