Big leisure push on Oyo agenda

Hotel room aggregator Oyo is planning to diversify its business to assist leisure travellers find hotels even as it grows its business segment of aggregating accommodations.

It is also looking to double the number of rooms in its network to 1,40,000 by this year-end to become the world’s 14th largest hotel.

The company gets 70 per cent of its business from the business centres, while the rest comes from leisure. The hotel aggregator is looking to bring the business-leisure ratio to 60:40 or even equal to each other in a few months, Ritesh Agarwal, founder and CEO of Oyo, said.

While the price of the leisure rooms would be 15-20 per cent higher than the business rooms, it would be 20-30 per cent lower than those of the three-star hotels, Agarwal added.

The company has also launched Oyo Townhouses, a neighbourhood hotel chain targeting millennial travellers, which would be scaled up to around 250 from five by this year-end.

The company has around 7,000 hotels and 70,000 rooms in over 200 cities. It is looking to ramp up the number to 1,40,000 by the end of this year, mainly by expanding to the unused inventory in existing hotels. It aims to around 8,500 hotels in its network by the year-end.

“The company has capital for its current expansion plans,” the founder said, while refusing to comment on its future fundraising. The company is making a positive net margin on each unit and has a double-digit margin.

The company also has operations in Malaysia and would be soon expanding into one more country. It has been exploring options such as South Asia and South East Asia.

The company will restart its home stay and service apartment operations, Agarwal said.

“WE GET 70 PER CENT OF OUR BUSINESS FROM BUSINESS CENTRES, WHILE THE REST COMES FROM LEISURE. WE ARE LOOKING TO BRING THE BUSINESS-LEISURE RATIO TO 60:40 IN A FEW MONTHS” RITESH AGARWAL, founder and CEO of Oyo