Ixigo reported second-quarter revenue growth of 13% to $33.8 million, as the company ramped up investment in its hotel business.
Ixigo parent Le Travenues Technology broke out hotel results for the first time in its earnings release for the second quarter of fiscal 2027, which ended September 30.
Hotels led segment growth, with gross transaction value (GTV) increasing 159% year over year and hotel revenue growing 528%.
Overall GTV increased 22% to $559.1 million, while adjusted EBITDA declined 17% to $2.5 million amid higher investment in hotels and technology. The company reported record profit after tax of $6.7 million, aided by a one-time gain of $4.3 million from the partial sale of its stake in electric bus operator Freshbus.
Hotel expansion
Ixigo is looking to capitalize on its existing base of train and bus customers to expand into India’s fragmented budget and mid-market hotel sector.
More than 86% of hotel bookings came from travelers already using Ixigo’s platforms. The company sees significant growth potential in India’s budget hotel market, where online booking penetration remains low.
Ixigo believes its existing customer base is well suited to the opportunity, with 94% of transactions involving travel to or from tier-2 and tier-3 cities, where it sees potential to expand bookings among budget and independent hotels.
“Many travelers looking for an affordable room are already booking their journey with us,” said Aloke Bajpai, chairman, managing director and group CEO of Ixigo, during the company’s earnings call. “Our aspiration remains to become the largest player serving this part of the hotel market over the next 4-5 years.”
Despite its rapid growth, hotels accounted for just 2.1% of Ixigo’s overall GTV in the quarter.
Hotel GTV reached $11.7 million, with more than 470,000 room nights booked, up 295% year over year. The figures include Brevistay, in which Ixigo acquired a majority stake earlier this year.
Core business and AI
Higher airfares and limited airline capacity weighed on Ixigo’s flight business, prompting the company to offer additional discounts. This contributed to an 8% decline in flight revenue to $8.7 million, even as flight GTV rose 37% year over year. Meanwhile, bus revenue increased 24% to $8.5 million, as demand benefited from high airfares and limited availability of confirmed train tickets. Train revenue grew 16% to $15.7 million.
Ixigo is pursuing a two-pronged AI strategy, making its services available through third-party artificial intelligence (AI) agents while developing its own agentic booking capabilities through Ixigo NEXT.
The company launched ChatGPT apps for its Ixigo, AbhiBus and ConfirmTkt platforms earlier this year. During the earnings call, Bajpai said Ixigo had demonstrated a fully agentic booking process, including payments, at the Global Fintech Fest in Mumbai and was awaiting regulatory clarity before launching it.
Ixigo is also using AI to expand its hotel supply, crditing its HELLO hotel partner platform with helping to increase directly contracted properties to more than 12,000, up from over 10,000 the previous quarter.
Despite these initiatives, Bajpai said traffic from AI platforms remains a low-single-digit percentage of overall traffic for both Ixigo and the broader Indian travel sector.