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Holiday Homes Are Oyo’s New Play As Customers Seek Shorter Getaways, Says Founder Ritesh Agarwal

Oyo founder Ritesh Agarwal said the company is adding 35,000-40,000 new rooms a month.

Ritesh Agarwal, founder and chief executive officer of OYO Hotels & Homes, speaks at the SoftBank World 2019 event in Tokyo, Japan. (Photographer: Akio Kon/Bloomberg)
Ritesh Agarwal, founder and chief executive officer of OYO Hotels & Homes, speaks at the SoftBank World 2019 event in Tokyo, Japan. (Photographer: Akio Kon/Bloomberg)

Oyo Hotels & Homes has shifted its focus towards building a network of holiday homes as consumers are looking for shorter getaways in the post-pandemic world, according to its founder Ritesh Agarwal.

“We’re seeing that consumers really want to go out. But instead of taking long flights, they want to go somewhere closer to their home towns, like road trips,” Agarwal, the group chief executive officer, told Bloomberg Television in an interview. “We redesigned ourselves to focus entirely on holiday homes as well as small hotels. That has helped us.”

As we speak, we are adding around 35,000-40,000 rooms a month.
Ritesh Agarwal, Founder and Group CEO, Oyo Hotels & Homes.

Oyo has had a tumultuous year with the company enduring mass layoffs and losses as Covid-19 battered the hospitality industry. However, Agarwal said the company is now witnessing a recovery.

“Markets like U.S., China and Europe have recovered quicker,” he said. “India and South Asia have had longer lockdowns but the momentum of growth is strongest there.”

Oyo’s revenue per available room has already reached 60-80% of pre-pandemic levels across various geographies, Agarwal said. “At this point, the focus is to build the right technology for our partners so that as we do come out of Covid we come out stronger.”

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Watch the full conversation here: