RailYatri.in, a three-year-old technology start up focused on train travelers in India, is planning to transform their online app from an information based platform to a market place which would provide all the non-ticketing services around railway stations in the country. The technology provider has recently introduced food e-commerce on to their app which is currently available at 80 stations across the country.
Speaking to Hospitality Biz, Manish Rathi, CEO of RailYatri.in, said that they will be enabling hotel booking, cab booking, etc. through their app to train travelers in the country soon. He said that the non-ticketing spend of the train travelers is much higher than the ticketing spend and therefore it is their intent to create a market place around the non-ticketing spend. The non-ticketing services are currently dis-jointed and RailYatri would try to join all these elements and offer them to the train travelers. “We want all these service providers to come on board and sell their services.” A taxi operator in a railway station would not have the marketing strength to compete with OLA or Uber, but RailYatri can help him to upsell his products.
Rathi said that hotel booking would start on their platform within one month’s time. Similarly, taxi booking at major stations in the country. Another major support system that RailYatri is planning to put in place is to help in terms suggesting alternate mode of transport for travelers who fail to get their tickets confirmed.
Rathi said that the expectations of the train travelers are also evolving and they also look for services at par with airline passengers. Therefore it is vital for technology companies to build relevant solutions which can instill confidence in the consumers. He said that hardly 3% of the corporate companies India offers air travel to their associates and vast chunk of business travel is still undertaken through trains. Also, there has been 100% increase in premium seats in Indian trains over the last five years.
RailYatri.in has 2 million monthly active users (MAU) currently. |