Gurgaon based online travel services agency
MakeMyTrip (MMT) has been eyeing a huge move into the online budget hotels market, for which it has held talks with
FabHotels and
Treebo Hotels.
The
Nasdaq-listed company wanted to pick up a strategic stake in either of the companies. However, its talks with Bengaluru-based
Treebo didn’t yield any results despite an offer of $10-12 million. Now, MMT might be investing in FabHotels, founded by Vaibhav Aggarwal and Adarsh Manpuria in 2014.
The deal could be worth five to ten million dollars, said
ET sources.
Also read:
Budget 2017 didn’t promote much of tourism in India. Here’s why If the deal goes through, MMT will be in direct competition with market leader
Oyo Rooms and Priceline group-backed
Booking.com.
"The deal is likely to have a clause which will see the budget hotel brand only list with MMT-Goibibo combine. This way they get to lock them into exclusivity," said an insider requesting anonymity.
Also read:
MakeMyTrip to issue $960m worth shares to acquire Ibibo group Talking of FabHotels, the Gurgaon-based budget hotel chain of 175+ hotels has
Accel Partners and
Qualcomm Ventures as its investors, and secured around $10 million in last funding round.