To become a full-fledged Online Travel platform (OTA) offering travel products and services, Indian Railway Catering & Tourism Corporation (IRCTC), had started enlisting hotels into its platform. Hotel & Restaurant Association of Northern India (HRANI) was the first hotel association in the country which signed a MoU with IRCTC expressing interest to work together in distribution

In order to make the proposition more attractive for hotels, IRCTC had waived off the initial integration fee till July 31, 2021. The offer was announced by Smt Rajni Hasija, CMD, IRCTC at a webinar hosted by HRANI

In the wake of lock down and shut down of hotel operations due to the second wave of pandemic, IRCTC has extended the one-time waiver of integration charges for all new applications till 31st October, 2021 from July 31, 2021 after the representation made by the Association

The members can directly integrate with IRCTC. An EOI for the same is available on the websites of both HRANI & IRCTC. Enclosure of current HRANI membership certificate is mandatory to avail the benefit of waiver on integration charges including reduced commission from 5% to 12% by our hotel members reported Renu Thapliyal, Secretary General, HRANI.

She further added that the hotels can get equivalent facilities to the star category upon a certification by HRANI. Star equivalent facilities of such hotels will be reflected against the hotel name indicating the category (association member) in the hotel page of IRCTC website

We are thankful to Madam Rajni Hasija, Chairman & Managing Director, IRCTC and her team for acceding to our submissions especially when the industry is going through tough times stated Sh. Surendra Kumar Jaiswal, President, HRANI and Vice President, FHRAI

"I firmly believe that this initiative of HRANI will help our hotel members to reduce the customer acquisition cost in a big way and will create a win-win situation for both the hoteliers as well as the end consumers" added Sh. Jaiswal

According to an official, the decision has been taken to make the integration on the IRCTC portal a really compelling proposition for hoteliers. The registration process is online and quite simple, it requires minimum documentation.