India’s Oyo Now Offers Hotel Bookings In 26 Chinese Cities

After Malaysia and Nepal, budget hotels network Oyo has entered China.

It launched its operations in about 26 cities including Hangzhou, Xian, Nanjing, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Shenzhen, Xiamen and Kunming, the company said in a statement. Its currently offers a mix of about 11,000 exclusive, franchised or managed rooms in China.

“The country’s (China’s) tourism industry is on the cusp of booming and flourishing wherein it enjoys a strong influx of both domestic and international tourists,” Ritesh Agarwal, founder and chief executive officer at OYO, said in the statement. Also, the market is as fragmented as in India, he said.

Oyo had last raised $250 million (about Rs 1,600 crore) in a funding round led by existing investor SoftBank Group Corp and Sunil Munjal’s Hero Enterprise, to expand in India and overseas. It has raised about $450 million since inception, according to Crunchbase, which aggregates information on startups.

Oyo said it’s currently operational in 150 cities across India, China, Malaysia and Nepal with over 5,000 exclusive hotels in its chain.