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I put Rajesh Magow, the chartered accountant who co-founded MakeMyTrip on a team where almost nobody knew travel, and Puneet Chhatwal, the Delhi boy who spent twenty-eight years running hotels in Europe before coming home to pull IHCL out of a decade of losses, into one room to explain the business of Indian travel from scratch.
What came out was far bigger than a lesson, from why boutique hotels are better built by outsiders and why booking direct still isn’t cheaper, to why ChatGPT can’t scrape its way into the travel funnel and where voice bookings are taking tier-three India, and why Puneet thinks the answer for a 25-year-old isn’t another app but a small, clean hotel.
And then the part I couldn’t let go of, why only ten million foreigners visit a country with more than forty UNESCO sites, what went wrong in Goa and where the next thirty Goas should be, why tourism being a state subject is the real bottleneck, and the full playbook both of them would run to take India from ten million tourists to a hundred million.
Timestamp:
00:00 Introduction
07:03 Getting to Know the Guests
14:30 How MakeMyTrip’s Hotel Partnerships Work
21:45 Booking Direct vs Travel Apps
28:26 Puneet Chhatwal’s Journey from Delhi to Europe
35:01 Building Villa Stays & Solo Travel Businesses
41:43 Will AI Change How We Book Travel?
48:40 Customer Data vs Personal Hospitality
55:43 Can Robots Replace Hotel Staff?
1:03:05 Bringing Small-Town India into Online Travel
1:09:52 Should Hotels Cut Out the Middleman?
1:16:37 India’s Mid-Range Hotel Opportunity
1:23:51 Marketing India & Fixing Tourism Taxes
1:30:46 Mass Tourism vs Luxury Tourism in Goa
1:38:26 Can Luxury Trains Attract Premium Tourists?
1:44:44 Civic Sense & the Tourist Experience
1:51:24 Making India’s Attractions Discoverable & Bookable
1:58:44 Alibaug’s Potential & the Homestay Business
2:05:56 Why Celebrations Are Driving Villa Bookings
2:13:42 What Travel Business Should a 25-Year-Old Start?
2:19:43 Handling Bad Experiences & Building Trust
2:27:16 Nandan Nilekani & the Shift to Hotel Branding
2:34:40 What It Takes to Run an Asset-Light Hotel Brand
2:41:13 The Wellness Hotel Opportunity
2:48:44 Building Travel Businesses for Gen Z
2:56:16 Travel Education & New Business Ideas
3:02:19 Unlocking Unexplored India
3:08:42 Building New Destinations & Event Tourism
3:15:38 Private Jet Economics & Closing Thoughts
Rajesh Magow,Co-Founder & Group CEO, MakeMyTrip Limited
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Puneet Chhatwal,Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer, The Indian Hotels Company Limited (IHCL)
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Nikhil Kamath-Co-founder of Zerodha and Gruhas
Host of ‘WTF is’ & ‘People By WTF’ Podcast
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Next guest Sonu Nigam
Why are people so negative in the comment section
This new format is very disoriented. This is creating a disconnect with the organic interview.
Initially thought taj guy was arrogant but loved how nikhil broke the ice and actual good value content was by him. MMT guy on other hand seemed very humble but just dint stop talking,goes way off topic and never spoke to the point. It became little irritating with his non stop off topic theories ,changing topics while speaking and the new format is soo irritating. Why did nikhil even approve this?
Overall an amazing episode!
Production team intro is annoying and waste of time. We understand you guys work hard on the background but that intro part is not necessary. Also what's up with guys at 0:50 and 05:17? trying to be cocky much? Also that black T-shit guy that comes up the middle is saying a whole lot of bunch that doesn't mean much. Definitely from some consulting brand.
The new format is good to break the monotony. The break works well while adding broader info making sure that we also know what the rest of industry is doing. The main focus is the main conversation and only where it really makes a difference, should the team divert to other opinions. BTW.. love the pod for its non-pretentious way. Feels so good to see the cameras are already on as guests are coming in and settling down – we get to see the real side too before the professional discussion begins. Thanks Nikhil and team – you are doing a fab job!
the new format is like watching ads, please stop with this distraction
ITS SOO LIBERERERATINGGGG CRINGEERE
Why isn't the Bloom Hotel here, are they not expanding?
1:44:53 💯
Loved the Pod.
As mentioned by the collective, the breaks in flow of the actual pod isnt great as a complete listening and learning experience.
That being said, it's great to have the perspectives of different stakeholders from the industry. It could either be added to the end of the episode as a Bonus Section for those who wish to stay or a seperate video by itself.
THANK YOU 🙂
I do see videos alot on this channel. I see that is room for shorts cut from video. when I see reels/shorts it is convenient for me to keep scrolling. I would say it's unfortunate but shorts would engage more youngsters than video. i understand its already there but I think you guys have lot of content you can get a lot of shorts out of it.
Rest I know guys are way smarter. just a thought.
Muje kuch bhi samajh nhi aya😂
WHAT IS this ads like interview in between. i just don't like women speaking between when 3 mens are talking.
In my pov the most imp thing is
Govt have to introduce a civic police in tourist places
We all know how some local ppl behave with this tourists
Why middle of podcast these unnecessary people coming
really annoying format…no consistency
bhai i love the podcast but 3.5 hours kaun travel kar raha hai isse sunne ke lia?
Guys please go back to old format. You're overengineering this
how can any Podcaster match Nikhil Kamath Aura . Bro these podcast are like 1000Page book that no institutions can teach you. even TedX can't teach you this much. Hatt off To nikhil Kamath❤
Please continue the old format
1:46:11 yeh desh mein jo "mass" category mein ate hai..voh sab logo mein civic sense kabhi nhi ayegi
Ye Boketto wali ko oi bolo hase kam data zada bataye.