Get a room

Bhaskar Chaudhary, Director - Product Management

 

 

‘‘If you know you can do better. Then do better.’’

 

There is this one scene in the famous movie Jab We Met that always cracks me up. It is when the two protagonists, Geet and Aditya show up at hotel 'decent,' only to find the hotel isn't very decent at all. Cops turn up in the middle of the night, and they are forced to flee. It's hilarious, but it is also quite an accurate depiction of the times. Be it the suspicious flurry of questions the hotelier asks an unmarried couple or the reality of shady hotels in your friendly neighborhood.

 

If you've ever tried to book a room with your significant other, without a marriage license, it can get uncomfortable. As a marketplace, we understand this from both stakeholders, i.e., customer and hotelier’s point of view. Hoteliers are worried about getting involved in something illegal. And yet privacy for the customer and excellent customer experience is of utmost importance to us all.

 

As part of the hotel's product team, we decided to dig deeper into this problem and try to take steps to improve our product to make it more couple-friendly.  If they were going out there, scouting for hotels and then answering uncomfortable questions, why couldn't we create a product that allows them to book a room, in complete privacy with no one asking them awkward questions when they check-in?

 

We created a couple of friendly filters. Not just that, all teams worked collaboratively on a campaign called 'Get a room' to show customers that we have introduced a couple of friendly segment as well. We wanted to reinforce an overall positive message to couples who needed privacy. We built-in checks and balances with the hotels as well – to ensure win-win for both stakeholders.

 

We continued building further on the product. We wanted to offer a better experience. In the process, we realized that to grow our reach, we have to dig more also into our segments and understand personas impeccably. We could no longer take what we knew for granted. The secret to growth is continuous improvement.

 

A year later, we saw significant growth in the number of bookings by couples - almost 15 to 20%. This also meant that somewhere, a younger, millennial traveler who didn't earlier know of us, now was using Go Ibibo to book rooms. Just goes to show, a lot can happen if you get a place...and solve problems for your customers, together!