Have a home in any cricket centre? List it on MakeMyTrip; big surge seen in homestays

For Indians, cricket is not just a game but a deep-rooted passion that can be seen whenever the Men in Blue play or for that matter when IPL tournament takes place. Whenever given the opportunity, die-hard cricket fans travel to far-away states and even countries to watch their favourite cricketers and teams play. With ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup 2023 being held in India this year, the excitement has elevated to a new level. Not just fans, even businesses look to take advantage in all possible ways. And now, MakeMyTrip is planning to capitalize on this by increasing the inventory of homestay properties that it has across select cities to match the demand of the upcoming cricket season that is expected to bring loads of fans to these places.

Demands of the cricket season

Parikshit Choudhury, Chief Business Officer, Alternate Accommodation & Customer Contact Group, MakeMyTrip said, “We have observed a significant surge in search of homestay properties for October and November in select cities across the country. This is a good sign and indicates that cricket fans are more willing than ever to explore homestays as an accommodation option”. To cater to the demands of the upcoming cricket season, MakeMyTrip has created a new feature that shows the distance of the homestay from the cricket stadiums in the city, allowing fans to book their accommodations accordingly.

The online travel company has also commissioned a ‘Host Your Home Cell’, along with a dedicated team of support staff that will be available 24X7. This will enable the smooth onboarding of hosts that wish to list their homes as homestays on MakeMyTrip’s homestay service.

“A large proportion of homestay properties in cricket centres across October and November is still available for cricket lovers at an economical price. Historically, our efforts to increase penetration have been focused on leisure markets, but now we are also focusing on business cities. It will be a win-win for the host and the traveller as India gets ready to immerse itself in cricket fever,” Parikshit added.

MakeMyTrip using AI services

In May, MakeMyTrip announced that it and Microsoft will work together to bring the benefits of AI to the travel industry. MakeMyTrip, in a statement, said, that, to make travel planning more inclusive and accessible, it will introduce voice-assisted booking system in Indian languages. This mission will be powered by Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service and Azure Cognitive Services, which will converse with the user to offer personalized travel recommendations based on their preferences; curate holiday packages based on variable inputs like occasion, budget, activity preferences, time of travel, and even help book these holiday packages.