Paytm to challenge existing players in hotel, travel space

Paytm, which recently raised $1.4 billion from SoftBank, is set to challenge existing players in the space of movie ticketing, travel and hotels, offering deep discounts to lure customers.

For this purpose, Nitin Misra, head of products for Paytm’s core payments business, has also been transferred to lead the hotels and packages segment.

Misra, who was earlier associated with Airtel, is holding talks with stakeholders in the online hotel business, including internet-based startups in the hospitality space.

Paytm is setting separate and bigger budgets for these businesses, with a stress on discounting and marketing so that it can garner shares from players like MakeMyTrip, BookMyShow, Oyo Rooms and others.

"After two years as head of payment products, Nitin is now looking forward to setting up the hotels and packages vertical in Paytm," a Paytm spokesperson confirmed.

Penetrating these new businesses would mean higher volumes of transactions on Paytm’s platform.

"Paytm's continuous discounting has prompted BookMyShow to counter with freebies as well despite having a much larger share of the movie ticketing market," said a source.