Oyo all set to make US foray; plans to launch affordable living solutions for young people, middle-income groups

Ritesh Agarwal-led hospitality firm Oyo is set to make its foray into the American market with affordable housing solutions after aggressively expanding its presence in Asian countries including China and Japan besides Britain, said a media report. Oyo will enter the US market with the launch of affordable living solutions targetting young people and middle-income groups, said a report in The Times of India. “We are currently in the early stages of rolling out our first Oyo Townhouses in the States, bringing jobs for the young people and better living solutions for the middle-income population ad millennials who are looking for an affordable yet good quality living spaces,” a spokesperson of Oyo was quoted as saying by The Times of India. [caption id=“attachment_4306961” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational image. Reuters.[/caption] Last month, Oyo had said it was working on a road map for 1-million room inventory from the existing count of 4.6 lakh. “We will have one million rooms inventory into our fold in the near distant future. I think, it should happen in a year and a half,” Oyo CEO, India and South Asia, Aditya Ghosh told PTI. This will help Oyo become the “world’s top player from number three now”, he claimed. The company has set a target of 2.5 million rooms by 2023, its promoter Ritesh Agarwal said. At present, Oyo has over 13,000 franchised and leased hotels, and over 4,50,000 rooms, adding over 64,000 rooms every month, globally. “In India, we have over 8,700 leased and franchised hotels, and more than 1,64,000 rooms,” a company official said. The firm has changed from the aggregator model to own inventories through the franchise or lease operation model. In China, a traditionally strong market for corporates, Oyo’s revenue is lower despite having a higher inventory of about 1.8 lakh rooms in that country, the official said. Oyo has an active presence in seven countries and is planning to expand to at least 15 countries with a focus on Asian nations. Over the next few weeks, it is expected to announce a fresh corporate growth plan focused on Asia and Japan, where it aims to become the largest player by the 2020 Summer Olympics, company officials said. The hospitality firm is also aggressively putting in place a digital record system to facilitate direct data sharing of customers’ arrivals and departures with various state governments. On Tuesday, Oyo reported a marginal widening of net loss to Rs 360 crore for the financial year 2017-18 for its operations in India. The company had posted a net loss of Rs 355 crore for the previous fiscal year 2016-17, OYO said in a statement. In September 2018, Oyo Hotels had announced to raise $1 billion from existing investors, including Japan’s Softbank Group, to grow its business in India and China, and expand into new international markets. It has already raised $800 million from investors led by Softbank’s Vision Fund, the world’s biggest private tech investor, and Lightspeed Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital and Greenoaks Capital. Oyo has also plans to invest $600 million of the new funds in China, where the hotel aggregator has expanded into 171 cities and 87,000 rooms since its launch in the country about 10 months ago. The company will use the remaining funds to expand in India and enter new markets. — With inputs from agencies