CRED Ventures Into Luxury Travel Space With Escapes: Third Launch In A Month
CRED Escapes: The Curated Travel Platform for CRED Members
15 March 2023
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Jayashri Ghorpade
CRED escapes offers curated travel experiences, including stays and other privileges, for its customers.
It reportedly has more than 300 hotels and resorts listed across 50 destinations
CRED Flash, the BNPL service, and a tap-to-pay option for retail payments using credit cards were launched by CRED last month.
Fintech major CRED has entered the luxury travel space with the launch of CRED escapes, a curated travel platform that offers stays, experiences, and other privileges to its customers. These privileges include room upgrades, access to theme parks, spa credits, and more. CRED has been on a spree of new launches recently.
The startup stated that its users can redeem CRED coins for hotel stays and it plans to collaborate with travel partners and hotel brands to create travel experiences for users. Additionally, it will partner with experienced travellers to create short-form video content to promote the travel vertical and attract more customers.
“CRED escapes is designed to make the travel experience for the creditworthy completely effortless – to ensure that their escapes always feel like one. With handpicked stays, member-exclusive privileges, and endless inspiration, CRED escapes is all you need to discover, plan, and book your perfect getaway,” Abhay Pruthi, head of CRED Commerce, said.
On its platform, CRED escapes has listed over 300 hotels and resorts across 50 destinations. Amid a string of new launches aimed at boosting revenue and cutting losses, CRED has announced its latest addition: a buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) service called CRED Flash, as well as a tap-to-pay option for retail payments using credit cards.
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In a bid to increase revenue and create parallel revenue streams through merchant discount rate (MDR) and interest income, CRED launched a UPI payment feature on its app in October 2022, which has been offered by other digital payments giants for years. However, the unicorn's losses are on the rise, with a net loss of INR 1,279 Cr in FY22, up 2.4X YoY, while revenue from operations surged 4.4X YoY to INR 393.5 Cr.
CRED, which caters to high credit score users, competes with fintech giants such as Paytm, PhonePe, and Google Pay, but has limited offerings. By entering the luxury travel vertical, CRED could potentially carve out a piece of India's traveltech industry, currently dominated by players like MakeMyTrip, EaseMyTrip, and Yatra. The luxury tourism market in India generated $13 Bn in 2022 and is expected to reach $18 Bn by 2024, according to a report.
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