OYO Rooms – Startup Story | Founder| CEO | Funding | History | Competitors

Introduction:

The largest branded hotel network is Oyo Rooms. OYO rooms are currently in operation with more than 450,000 listings in around 5,000 cities in India, Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates, Nepal, China, and Indonesia. Ritesh Agrawal is the brains behind the successful firm known as OYO Rooms of Oyo rooms. On November 16, 1993, in Bisham, Cuttack, Orissa, he was born.

An Indian hotel chain called Oyo Hotels & Homes is also known as Oyo Rooms (stylized as OYO). It is one of the biggest and fastest-expanding hotel chains, with leased and franchised lodging properties. When OYO was first established in 2013, Ritesh Agarwal mostly operated inexpensive hotels. With tens of thousands of hotels, holiday houses, and millions of rooms in hundreds of Indian towns, the firm went internationally.

About OYO Rooms:

Ritesh Aggarwal saw the need for affordable living spaces when traveling to numerous locations and looking for lodging and meals, which is when he came up with the concept of OYO rooms. The journey of Oyo Rooms began with the introduction of a single property in May 2013, and it has since partnered with 6500 hotels around the country.

In 2016 and 2017, they performed for the first time abroad, in Malaysia and Nepal, respectively. OYO offers superior accommodations, standardized services, free Wi-Fi, breakfast, air conditioning, flat-screen TVs, white bed linens with a specific thread count, name-brand amenities, 6-inch shower heads, a beverage tray, and others. Customers can book hotel rooms from them, and they receive a cut of the revenue.

It is a difficult challenge given the growth in real estate costs to offer people the greatest living quarters at a reasonable cost with all the conveniences, but Ritesh did a good job of it. In today’s digital and interconnected world, it’s critical to keep ahead of the competition in the day-by-day growing online hotel booking market. OYO used a 360-degree marketing approach that included traditional and online media. It’s crucial to draw in and keep clients in the age of digital media. The OYO effectively utilized social media’s ability to perform well, maintain its rating, and stay in front of the competition.

For maximum website traffic, OYO optimized its search engine. They chose carefully chosen keywords that their target audience looks for most frequently. Online hotel booking, hotel booking online, hotel booking offers, book hotels, best hotel deals, book hotels online, hotel deals, hotel rooms, best hotels, best hotel pricing, and nearby hotels are the most frequently used and suggested keywords. As a result, whenever someone searches for the aforementioned terms, they are guaranteed to come across OYO’s website.

OYO Rooms Founder & Team:

Ritesh Agrawal is the brains behind the successful firm known as OYO Rooms of Oyo rooms. Ritesh Agarwal was raised in a Marwari household of the middle class. On November 16, 1993, in Bisham, Cuttack, Orissa, he was born.

At the age of 17, Ritesh began his entrepreneurial endeavor. In the year 2012, the same year he started Oravel Stays Pvt.Ltd., he left college. Ritesh Agarwal’s first business venture was Oravel Stays Pvt. Ltd. He created this business so that clients might benefit from the platform for listing and reserving affordable lodging.

OYO Rooms History:

Ritesh Agarwal established Oravel Stays in 2012 to facilitate the listing and reservation of inexpensive lodging. He switched from Oravel to OYO in 2013 after conducting months of research and staying in numerous bed and breakfasts, guest houses, and boutique hotels throughout India.

OYO partners with hotels to give similar guest experiences across cities. Shortly after launching Oravel Stays, Ritesh Agarwal received a grant of $100,000 as part of the Thiel Fellowship from Peter Thiel. OYO currently has over 17,000 employees globally, of which approximately 8000 are in India and South Asia.

OYO Hotels & Homes now identify as a full-fledged hotel chain that leases and franchises assets. The company claims to invest in CAPEX, and GMs to oversee operations and customer experience as well as generating around a million job opportunities in India and South Asia alone. OYO has also set up 26 training institutes for hospitality enthusiasts across India.

OYO Rooms Name & Logo:

OYO Rooms Highlight:

OYO Rooms Revenue:

OYO saw an income of Rs 32.86 crore in its first year of business but also a significant loss of Rs 496.31 crore. Its top line had increased to Rs 415 crore by the end of the fiscal year 2018, while losses were at Rs 360 crore. OYO reported a 245 percent increase in revenues year over year, but a slight increase in losses from Rs 355 crore to Rs 360 crore. OYO Hotels and Homes haven’t actually been a hotel chain during its brief existence. Instead, it has been variously called a hotel aggregator, an online travel agency (OTA), and even a Ponzi scheme with an unsustainable business plan.

The brand is valued at over 600 crores. The quality checks and standards are audited every few days to deliver an assured quality experience. They provide budgeted hotels that range from Rs. 999 – Rs.4000. With fast listing services, a hotel property can be added to their list within 5-6 days after signing the agreement. The hospitality start-up is backed by the SoftBank Group, Greenoaks Capital, Sequoia Capital, and Lightspeed India.

OYO Rooms Funding & Investors:

The company is currently valued at $10 billion as per the last round of funding.

• One billion dollars were raised in September 2018, and on 13 February 2019, the RoC filing for the $100 million from Star Virtue Investment Ltd. was made.
• In October 2019, SoftBank Group, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Sequoia India led a $1.5 billion Series F funding round.

Subject to shareholder and regulatory clearances, founder and CEO Ritesh Agarwal inked a $2 billion main and secondary management investment round in 2019 through RA Hospitality Holdings (Cayman). This deal was sponsored by international institutional banks and their financial partners. Early investors in OYO, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Sequoia India are selling a portion of their interests to assist the founder in increasing his stake and thereby commitment while continuing to be deeply committed to the company’s long-term goals.

OYO Rooms Business Model:

The primary objective of the hotel aggregator is to only offer a list of hotels to their clients on their website and collect a fee as revenue. Due to their emphasis on co-branding, The OYO Rooms run differently. OYO chose to partner with travel aggregators such as Make My Trip, Clear Trip, and GoIbibo.com for listing because of the agreement’s expansion of OYO’s market reach. This industry mostly caters to budget visitors and corporate travelers.

Oyo used Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest to its advantage for social media marketing. OYO shared location-based updates, promotional posts, and posts on the organization’s specific progress on Facebook. These articles facilitated the browsing of travel destinations, and ongoing promotional posts offered clients deals and discounts, enticing them to make OYO reservations.

They replicated these Facebook methods on Instagram and uploaded images captured by tourists and OYO users. Encouraging their fans to tag OYO in their postings, this increased engagement rates. They shared campaign-related posts, trend-related posts, posts about the different award wins and events, and postings about any brand’s CSR on Pinterest and Twitter.

Services Offered thru OYO Rooms:

To meet the needs and wants of the many types of consumers, Oyo Rooms maintains a broad product range that is periodically updated, resulting in a product line stretch. In order to expand its service offering and improve client comfort, it has also co-branded with a number of other service providers, including Airtel for Wifi support, Ola for transportation support, Biotique for in-room toiletries, Air Pegasus, PayPal, and Mobikwik for payments. Its various product lines range in depth:

• Cheap Hotel Rooms With the help of its partnerships with hotels, Oyo Rooms aims to deliver standardized services like complimentary WiFi and breakfast, flat-screen TVs, immaculate white bed linen with a specific thread count, name-brand toiletries, 6-inch shower heads, a beverage tray, etc.
• Around 180+ cities in India and Malaysia offer these services. Budget rooms are separated into Standard, Premium, and Elite rooms based on their price range, giving rise to a product depth of 3.
• The midscale segment is where the neighborhood hotel OYO Townhouse, marketed to millennial tourists, belongs.
• OYO Home, which offers private homes in various places and is entirely managed by OYO, is billed as the first home management system in India.
• OYO Vacation Homes claims to be the third-largest vacation rental management brand in the world, behind Germany’s Traum-Ferienwohnungen and Belvilla, Danland, and DanCenter.
• In April 2018, SilverKey started to serve the demands of business travelers taking short- or long-term journeys for work.
• Capital O provides services for booking hotels.
• Palette, an upper-end leisure resort category, offers a precisely crafted staycation for people looking for an intuitive experience at reasonable pricing.
• Collection O provides business travelers with rental and booking options.
• Millennials and young professionals looking for fully managed residences for long-term rentals at reasonable pricing can check out OYO LIFE.

OYO Rooms Awards & Recognition:

The Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship awarded OYO the National Entrepreneurship Award 2017 in the hospitality category.

OYO Rooms Competitors:

Top 10 OYO Rooms competitors:

• Bag2Bag.
• Treebo Hotels.
• Airbnb.
• FabHotels.
• Nestaway Technologies.
• HotelTonight.
• MyTwinPlace.
• StayZilla.

OYO Rooms Latest News:

• Oyo uploads updated IPO documents with Sebi and restate losses for FY22 to Rs 2,140 crore.
• SoftBank-backed Oyo wants to revive its IPO if growth picks up.
• Ahead of its upcoming IPO, SoftBank reduces Oyo’s valuation to $2.7 billion.
• Ola fires 200 more engineers while Oyo’s IPO plans are revived.

OYO Rooms Future Plans:

Travel unicorn OYO already has 1,350 locations in South India and is looking to become a full-stack global hospitality tech provider. Travel unicorn OYO Rooms has plans to expand its service in South India, with a target of 600 new locations by December.

FAQs about OYO Rooms:

Who is the Honour of OYO?

Ritesh Agarwal is the founder and CEO of OYO Hotels & Homes. Traveling across India at the age of 17, Ritesh stayed in more than 100 bed and breakfasts, guest houses, and hotels to realize there was a massive dearth of affordable and good-quality hotels in the budget hotel category.

What is the rank of OYO hotels in the world?

Third Largest.

For what OYO is famous?

OYO Rooms (stylized as OYO), also known as OYO Hotels & Homes, is an Indian multinational hospitality chain of leased and franchised hotels, homes, and living spaces. Founded in 2012 by Ritesh Agarwal, OYO initially consisted mainly of budget hotels.

What is OYO valuation?

The valuation of IPO-bound OYO in the private market has dipped to around $6.5 billion.

Is OYO profitable in 2022?

According to the filing, OYO’s restated loss for the three-month period ended June 30, 2022, stood at Rs 413.87 crore. In the fiscal ended March 31, 2022, it posted a loss of Rs 1,939.8 crore.

Can police harass couples in OYO?

No, absolutely not. The problem is we are not aware of our rights. So the answer to your question would be no. Police can’t arrest any couple who is voluntarily staying together in a hotel if they both are older than 18 years of age.

What is special about OYO Rooms?

OYO is a global platform that empowers entrepreneurs and small businesses with hotels and homes by providing full-stack technology that increases earnings and eases operations. Bringing affordable and trusted accommodation that guests can book instantly.

Can we go to OYO without ID proof?

OYO expects guests to give identification details of all guests staying in rooms when they make online reservations. In addition, they require proof of identification of all the guests at the time of check-in. They may not object walk-in guests to entering the rooms producing identity proof.

Can I bring guests to my OYO room?

Check-in Policy: The primary guest must be at least 18 years of age to be able to check into the hotel. The usual standard check-in time is 12 noon. OYO tries to ensure that you can check in any time after that till your reservation is valid.

What happens if the police caught me with my girlfriend in a hotel?

You are an adult with valid IDs then no police personnel can arrest you if you are together in a hotel room with mutual consent.

Conclusion:

Today, OYO Rooms is India’s largest hotel chain with 173,000 rooms under management. It is also the world’s third-largest, with over half a million rooms over the 18,000 properties that it currently franchises and leases in 500 cities across 10 countries.