India’s corporate travel sector is going through a major change, and hotels are becoming the biggest untapped opportunity. According to the experts, 70–75% of flight bookings are already done online, only 20–25% of corporate hotel bookings are digital. This leaves huge growth potential in a Rs 1.3 trillion market that is expected to grow to Rs 2.6 trillion by FY30.
Industry experts noted that hotels make up 34% of total corporate travel spending, but they contribute nearly 55% of the industry’s gross margins because hotel bookings usually offer higher margins than flights. TravelPlus, a hotels-focused corporate travel platform, claims to have capitalised on this opportunity with its end-to-end business travel platform for enterprises. It lets an organization’s travel desk team plan business trips, events, conferences, flights, and hotels, while guaranteeing GST compliance and data insights on spends. Most of this opportunity lies in the economy segment, where room rates are under Rs 3,500 per night. This segment accounts for 69% of corporate hotel demand. However, around 95% of hotels in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities are unbranded and highly fragmented.
According to 2025 reports by the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA), India’s business travel spending is expected to reach $43 billion (around Rs 3.6 trillion) in 2025. This represents a strong 15.5% growth rate – the highest among the world’s top 15 markets.
This scattered market creates both operational and financial problems. Experts said finance teams often deal with GST credit losses and reconciliation issues. Travel teams struggle to enforce company policies when working with many small, local vendors. Employees also face inconsistent service quality and sometimes even denied check-ins, especially in non-metro cities where business travel is growing rapidly.
Traditional travel management companies (TMCs) mainly focus on large premium or global clients. On the other hand, consumer online travel agencies (OTAs) are designed for leisure travelers, not for companies that need automated compliance and policy control. As more companies expand into Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, there is growing demand for tech-driven platforms that offer better control, smoother operations, and automated compliance.
What initially started as a budget hotel chain, evolved into a SaaS-driven corporate travel management platform during the Covid pandemic. The company claims to have reported adjusted EBITDA profitability of Rs 170 million in FY25. Its revenue grew 83% between FY23 and FY25, faster than the overall market. Profitability improved as the company increased sales efficiency and used automation to reduce manual work, according to the numbers provided by the TravelPlus.
Several structural factors are also supporting this shift. Stricter GST enforcement, vendor consolidation, and increasing business travel in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities are speeding up the move toward digital hotel bookings.
With online flight bookings already reaching maturity, the next big growth opportunity in corporate travel is likely to come from organizing and digitizing India’s fragmented hotel market through technology-led platforms.