Online bus reservation services in India

Kaustubh Katdare

Kaustubh Katdare

@thebigk • Oct 21, 2024
It's interesting to see how the online bus reservation services in India are mushrooming these days. Several Indian startup companies still think that there's room for yet another 'me too' service. After the much hyped acquisition of Red Bus, the pioneer in online bus reservations for ~800 crore Indian rupees (not sure what the actual deal value was), I thought there will be a consolidation of the services and there will be 2-3 major travel companies that will have a total hold over the system. But just a search on Google for the keywords 'bus reservation India' reveals a different story.

There are countless service providers in the domain - redbus continues to be on the top, followed by MakeMyTrip, BusIndia (they claim to be bigger than Redbus), Abhibus, GoiBibo (they acquired redbus), Ticketvala, Expedia, PayTM, KSRTC, Travelyaari, MyBusTickets, Ezeego, OneIndia, Ixigo, TicketGoose, BestBus... the list looks endless. Makes me wonder what differentiating factors do these services provide?

I tried visiting some of these websites and found that there aren't any differentiating factors at all. Most of the service providers have similar interfaces and offer seat selection on some of the operators / routes. But that's all about it. If you don't have a differentiating factor - why start a new bus ticketing service?

I'd like to ask CEans, which online bus reservation service do they frequently use and what do you like the most about the service?
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  • Sarathkumar Chandrasekaran

    Sarathkumar Chandrasekaran

    @sarathkumar-FEGRPw • Oct 3, 2013

    KSRTC - simple and ease of selection of options .
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  • Kaustubh Katdare

    Kaustubh Katdare

    @thebigk • Oct 3, 2013

    SarathKumar Chandrasekaran
    KSRTC - simple and ease of selection of options .
    Isn't the interface the same for almost every service? Would love to know what speciality KSRTC has over the rivals?
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  • Sarathkumar Chandrasekaran

    Sarathkumar Chandrasekaran

    @sarathkumar-FEGRPw • Oct 3, 2013

    Kaustubh Katdare
    Isn't the interface the same for almost every service? Would love to know what speciality KSRTC has over the rivals?
    Features that is far better than existing transport buses:
    *top destinations
    *good mobile website and mobile booking
    *Intelligent transport system
    *discounts

    And its a government run transport which i consider more reliable and reasonable pricing .
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  • Anand Tamariya

    Anand Tamariya

    @anand-tamariya-DnfjEX • Oct 6, 2013

    SarathKumar Chandrasekaran
    And its a government run transport which i consider more reliable and reasonable pricing .
    I agree with this part. Being a govt. service, there are no cancellations and buses leave on time.
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  • Anoop Kumar

    Anoop Kumar

    @anoop-kumar-GDGRCn • Oct 6, 2013

    Anand Tamariya
    I agree with this part. Being a govt. service, there are no cancellations and buses leave on time.
    I will add one more point with govt. buses. Drivers are surely trained and do not overspeed.
    My experienced based on Harayana Roadways Delhi to Agra. Private bus drivers tends to overspeed and less reliable (Delhi to Mussoorie).
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  • krishna chaitanya

    krishna chaitanya

    @krishna-chaitanya-OG2ITa • Oct 22, 2013

    Yes,
    #-Link-Snipped-# you are right, recently my friend also come to me about same kind of deal to start a bus ticket portal. I have little bit knowledge on pros and corn and profitablity of start ups in Bus Ticket Booking portals, i suggested them to stop it, but they are not in a positions to do it, more over they are giving advices to me. I think people needed some more market research about Industry.

    A small suggestion, my self working with a travel domain named "eTravelSmart" it is differ form others. Currently it having same kind of options what other buses had, but along with it, it supporting people who are really in needed and planting trees on behalf of passengers after every 5 bookings. And very near, they are going to give some special features which makes users comfort.
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