Club Mahindra, the BSE listed timeshare based holidays business, which was impacted significantly by the implementation of TRAI’s spam guidelines, has said that its web based reservations have now increased to 55% of total reservations. Last quarter, this was at 55%, and but the growth has been significant since Q1FY13, when the web accounted for only 13% of reservations. In its annual report, Club Mahindra mentions that for the full year FY14, "the percentage of online bookings increased to 45 per cent" from 29 per cent in the previous year. The company also upgraded its website during the year to integrate all services also available via its call center. "These online features such as managing membership account, holiday bookings, payments, amendments and utilisation of vouchers have been very popular with the members." The Shift from SMS Spam to online marketing hasn't quite worked out yet More important, perhaps, is the forced shift for the company to online marketing for new customer acquisition. Customer acquisitions for Club Mahindra declined drastically over the past year, because TRAI clamped down its SMS and cold-calling approach to customer acquisition. While the company indicated that there was recovery in the last quarter, by an opaque disclosure "4k net member additions", instead of an exact number, the net additions are down again to 2059 additions, a drop of 33% over the same quarter last year. Also read: How Club Mahindra Was Hit By TRAI’s Spam Guidelines However, the company is bullish on the online market. In its annual report, it says…
