Introduction:
Launched in August 2006, this online travel portal is ranked as the leading provider of consumer-direct travel services in India.
Based in Gurgaon, India, it is a one-stop-shop for all travel-related services. This travel portal provides reservation facility for more than 40,000 hotels in India and over 500,000 hotels around the world.
Challenges:
The company’s phenomenal growth over the past few years and a significant number of hotels added to their travel portfolio brought to the forefront the problem of consistency in content.
The primary requirement of a customer wanting to book a hotel is to be able to view the hotel images. However, with a spread of about 700 destinations in India and a large number of registered hotels across these destinations meant getting the photos of these hotels in a limited period a big challenge.
Designing a process that could scale easily and reach optimal efficiency from the onset was the primary challenge that had to be addressed.
Solution:
Iksula, having worked with multiple different clients on photography operations and using our subject matter expertise, designed a process flow this with a dedicated team.
1) Segregation & Scheduling:
The input list of hotels from the portal was segregated as per state/regions.
Regions were assigned to individual photography teams. The route planning was done to conduct shoots across multiple cities in respective regions in a timely, phase wise manner.
2) Photography:
A team of 20 dedicated photographers was deployed for live shoots.
Standard photography gear was provided to all photography teams to ensure consistency in shoots.
3) Image Editing:
A team of images editors was trained on the client guidelines with regards to color consistency, basic retouch of images, and image re-sizing.
4) Image Uploads:
A team of uploaders were trained on how to use the online portals. Ensuring consistency with regards to the count of image uploads, tagging, and renaming of images as per client guidelines.
5) Project Coordination:
A dedicated project coordinator was brought on board to track the performance of photographers, and market managers were included to assist with any challenges during or after the photoshoots.
Daily and weekly status updates/reports were shared with the client to update about the status of our shoots and uploads.
