Dallas, Texas, United States
Global travel technology company OYO is planning to add over 100 hotels in the US in 2023. This is nearly double the number of hotels the company added to its portfolio in 2022. This expansion strategy will focus on adding more hotels in the states of Oregon, Washington, Texas, Oklahoma, Georgia and Florida. Texas continues to be the largest and fastest growing market for OYO in the US, while it also has sizable concentration of hotels in Oregon, South and North Carolina, Florida & Georgia.
In 2022, the company saw a ~23% increase in new hotels added to its portfolio in the US vs 2021. The company also recently onboarded some marquee properties such as Plaza on the Pike by OYO in Atlantic City, OYO Hotel Renton Bellevue in Seattle, Tulsa Square Hotel by OYO in Tulsa and OYO Hotel Hermiston in downtown Oregon.
Talking about the expansion plans, Gautam Swaroop, CEO OYO International said, “Our US operations have seen significant growth in 2022. But 2023, may just be the best year for us. We are taking measures to add hotels in high RevPar leisure markets such as the Pacific Northwest and will also focus on improving our presence along the East Coast. Over 15 hotels have already signed up with us so far in 2023 and we expect to add many more in the coming months.”
Nikhil Heda, Head of Business Development, OYO USA added, “We are excited by the response we are seeing in the market. Last year 35% of our new hotels came from recommendations or referrals by our existing hotel owners, indicating a growing trust in OYO’s demand & revenue generation capabilities. We are seeing growing demand coming in from both independent hotels as well as branded properties.”
Commenting on their experience of working with OYO, Hiren Govind, owner of OYO Hotel McAllen Airport South said, “We onboarded our first hotel with OYO in 2019 and in the past few years our revenues have grown 2.5 times resulting in higher profits. Along with increased yield, the OYO team has also been of tremendous help in ensuring smooth operations. I look forward to adding a few more properties with OYO and drive similar growth and revenue with them.”
OYO offers hotels access to a large base of regular customers through its app and website, and also lists hotels on multiple Online Travel Agents (OTAs) to boost booking demand and, revenue. OYO’s best-in-class Artificial Intelligence-enabled pricing software automatically drives the best booking prices across all channels, based on room type, seasonality and other factors, therefore, enabling such increase in online revenues. OYO has started offering hotels the flexibility of not having to invest heavily in redoing the hotel to match stringent brand guidelines, something that other budget hotel chains insist on. It has been focusing instead on standardizing service led components such as customer support and booking experience.
The company helps ensure great experience for customers, with ease of search and a quick booking experience, highly competitive room prices, automated tools such as Artificial Intelligence powered chatbots to quickly resolve customer queries, loyalty programmes and easy refund, if needed.
OYO’s US operations recently announced that it has outpaced the budget hotel segments growth in per available room revenue (RevPar) with an 18% rise in 2022 vs pre-covid year, 2019. The budget hotel segment in the meanwhile, grew by only 6% in the US.
Disclaimer: Oravel Stays Limited is proposing, subject to applicable statutory and regulatory requirements, receipt of requisite approvals, market conditions and other considerations, to make an initial public offering of its equity shares (the “Equity Shares”) and has filed the Draft Red Herring Prospectus (“DRHP”) with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (“SEBI”).
The DRHP is available on the website of SEBI at www.sebi.gov.in, websites of the Stock Exchanges, i.e., BSE Limited and National Stock Exchange of India Limited at www.bseindia.com and www.nseindia.com, respectively, and is available on the websites of the Global Coordinators and Book Running Lead Managers, i.e., Kotak Mahindra Capital Company Limited, J.P. Morgan India Private Limited and Citigroup Global Markets India Private Limited at www.investmentbank.kotak.com, www.jpmipl.com and www.online.citibank.co.in/rhtm/citigroupglobalscreen1.htm; the websites of the Book Running Lead Managers, i.e., ICICI Securities Limited, Nomura Financial Advisory and Securities (India) Private Limited, JM Financial Limited and Deutsche Equities India Private Limited at www.icicisecurities.com, www.nomuraholdings.com/company/group/asia/india/index.html, www.jmfl.com and www.db.com/India, respectively. Investors should note that investment in equity shares involves a high degree of risk and for details relating to the same, refer to the Red Herring Prospectus which may be filed with the Registrar of Companies in the future, including the section titled “Risk Factors”. Potential investors should not rely on the DRHP filed with SEBI for making any investment decision. The Equity Shares offered in the Fresh Issue (as defined in the DRHP) and the Offer for Sale (as defined in the DRHP) have not been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”) and, may not be offered or sold within the United States except pursuant to an exemption from, or in a transaction not subject to, the registration requirements of the Securities Act and applicable state securities laws. Accordingly, the Equity Shares are only being offered and sold (i) within the United States only to “qualified institutional buyers” (as defined in Rule 144A under the Securities Act) in transactions exempt from, or not subject to, the registration requirements under the Securities Act, and (ii) outside the United States in offshore transactions in reliance on Regulation S under the Securities Act and pursuant to the applicable laws of the jurisdictions where those offers and sales are made. There will be no public offering of the Equity Shares in the United States.