Paytm takes over NightStay to enter hotel booking business

Digital payments behemoth Paytm has officially acquired NightStay, a Noida-based last-minute hotel booking platform. The development comes six months after media reports suggested the potential acquisition.

The deal marks Paytm re-entry into hotel booking business. Earlier, it was headed by Nitin Misra, who is now leading Consumer Lending and Digital Gold divisions at Paytm.

Now, Nightstay founder Nasr Khan will lead Paytm's hotel booking services.

The deal was expected to be in the range of $20 million, however, there is no clarity on the transaction details.

According to the Alibaba-backed company, it plans to invest Rs 500 crore in scaling up its travel operations and has tied up with over 5,000 hotels including Sarovar, Zuri, Treebo, Indian Hotels Co’s Ginger, Sterling and Vresorts across the budget, luxury and business segments.

Further, it aims to reach an inventory of 2 million hotels and alternative accommodations globally by 2020

For the uninitiated, NightStay offers unsold hotel rooms to consumers with steep discounts in real time, across a dozen cities including Delhi (NCR), Bengaluru, Mumbai, Pune and Chandigarh among others.

So far, it has raised funds in the range of $1.2 to 1.5 million in two rounds.

In 2017, it secured an undisclosed amount in a Pre Series A round led by Indian Angel Network (IAN) and LetsVenture. Previously, NightStay had scored a $500K seed round from Vivek Bihani (Bedrock Venture), Rajesh Sawhney, and Shailesh Vikram Singh.

With the entry of hotel booking business Paytm will be competing with MakeMyTrip, Yatra, Cleartrip, and others.

The development was reported by ET.