rategain travel will host investor meetings with Investec in Singapore on June 08 and June 09, 2026. The sessions are designed to facilitate engagement through one-on-one and group meetings, providing a platform for institutional investors to interact with the company's management directly. These discussions will rely on publicly available documents for reference.

The disclosure was made in accordance with Regulation 30 read with Schedule III of the SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015. The schedule outlines the specific dates, the participating investor, and the format of the interactions, which will be held physically in Singapore.

Mukesh Kumar, General Counsel, Company Secretary & Compliance Officer at RateGain Travel Technologies Limited, signed the disclosure on June 02, 2026. The filing was submitted to the National Stock Exchange of India Limited and BSE Limited for their records.

RateGain Travel Technologies Limited has released The Direct Booking Friction Report 2026, a first-of-its-kind audit revealing that hotels across the Asia Pacific, Middle East, and Africa (APMEA) region are losing direct revenue to friction within their own digital experience rather than poor demand. The report warns that AI-powered search tools have the potential to push hotel websites out of the booking journey entirely, representing a structural shift in how travellers interact with hospitality brands online.

Key Audit Findings

The report evaluated booking journeys across 65 hotel properties in India, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and the Maldives. It identified critical friction points across visibility, pricing, booking experience, and guest trust. At the visibility stage, 42% of hotels do not appear on Page 1 for unbranded search queries, rendering them invisible to high-intent travellers. During the comparison stage, 63% of properties list higher rates on their own website than on Online Travel Agencies (OTAs), actively losing guests to third-party platforms on price.

Digital Experience and Trust

The audit highlights significant inefficiencies at the booking and commitment stages. Approximately 72% of hotel websites fail the 3-second load benchmark, with average mobile load times reaching 4.1 seconds. When guests persist, they face an average of 4 clicks to confirm a reservation against a global benchmark of 3. Furthermore, 44% of hotels withhold taxes and fees until the final payment screen, identified as the single largest checkout abandonment trigger. Additionally, 1 in 3 properties expose guests to a URL or domain disconnect between their website and booking engine, introducing security anxiety.

Regional Variations and AI Impact

The report found sharp regional differences in digital maturity across APMEA markets. Singapore and Thailand set the regional benchmark with average load times of 2.9 seconds and the strongest direct price parity discipline. In contrast, the Maldives recorded the highest friction scores across speed, OTA bundle dominance, and pricing opacity. Ashish Sikka, Business Head - UNO Platforms at RateGain, noted that AI search is changing the rules of visibility faster than most hotels realize, creating an urgent need for unified platforms to fix systematic gaps.