Booking.com Looks to Compete in India With Its Own Payments System and Business Travel

Photo Credit: Santosh Kumar, Booking.com's regional head for South Asia at the Skift India Intelligence Summit in Delhi in March 2026. Skift Booking.com wants to win over more Indian travelers, whether they’re traveling within the country or abroad. It also wants to sell business travel to small- and mid-sized companies and take charge of more of the booking and payment process. It faces a tough market, where local rivals, led by MakeMyTrip, dominate domestic travel. “If we have to look at how we can win India in the longer term, we have to be more relevant to the India booker,” Santosh Kumar, Booking.com’s regional head for South Asia, told Skift. In India, Booking.com is best known for hotel and stay bookings. Now it’s branching out. It’s building its own payments system, offering startups and small businesses a free tool to book work trips, and trying to keep customers coming back for both business and leisure travel. Kumar also downplayed the effect of Middle East tensions on Indians traveling abroad. “I don’t think it’s changing the aspiration of the Indian traveler i