OYO Steps into New Food Tech & Housekeeping Ventures


BENGALURU: If till yesterday Oyo rooms could have been called a start up, now it’s a prominent name in the hotel industry of India. To merge among the top ones in the hospitality segment, Oyo rooms is steering a new food tech venture and housekeeping service. The attempt is to create a sustainable and standardized long-term brand.

The food venture will be called as Oyo Café, and will host kitchens that will prepare food to be sold under this brand name.

Maninder Gulati, head of strategy and corporate development of OYO comments, "As in any food business, we noticed that our partner hotels' kitchen have excess inventory."

He further added, "So, the idea is, if we can utilize that and use food tech platforms like Zomato or Swiggy to distribute that food then that's a revenue generation potential for our partner."

On housekeepingThat is an on-demand cleaning service. Our area managers can facilitate cleanup for a room as and when a customer needs it."

When inquired upon the present business status of Oyo, Gulati shared, "From angel investors who would want to cut down on travel time and, therefore, pick the nearest OYO, to students who gather on a Saturday night to watch a match together, we have seen all sorts of use cases for OYO.”

Oyo presently owns over 3,000 properties across 130 Indian cities and towns. Oyo started its business with 12,000 rooms in 1,200 properties in 73 cities. Their target is 50,000 rooms in 5,000 properties by the end of 2015.

Experts and critics consider Oyo’s affordability and cost cutting structure as a mean to glue customers. They additional facilities are expected to benefit the company for long term success.

The present competitors for Oyo include ZO Rooms, Treebo Hotels, Fabhotels, Wudstay, Zen Rooms, Zip Rooms, Vista Rooms and RoomOnCall.

 Gulati said, "We want to contribute to 80 pct of business that these hotels get, therefore, we take the significant number of rooms in each property.”

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