The fast-growing OYO group has added more
than 1,200 rooms to its UK portfolio during lockdown, the company has announced, citing a lower and simplified fee structure.
New members of the group include the nine-room OYO Hampton Court Hotel, OYO
White Horse Hotel in Storrington in the South Downs, OYO Cedar Villa Guest
House in Inverness and OYO The Townhouse in Durham.
The company
said it was offering “simplified and flexible deal structures and lowering fees
to take into account the current challenges in the market”.
OYO said its UK hotels, including the OYO
Albert View in Manchester, OYO Maggie Jones Guest House in Cardiff and OYO
Marine Parade Hotel in Eastbourne, had handled 200,000 roomnights for key
workers, the homeless and asylum seekers during lockdown. It said that its UK
hotels had achieved an average occupancy rate of 53 per cent between April and
September.
UK CEO Jeremy Sanders left the business earlier this year as the company furloughed many of its staff. In June, OYO announced new
operational procedures to ensure the safe re-opening of its UK properties.
Paul McManus, head of supply at OYO UK
& Europe, said, “Now more than ever, independent hotel owners are looking
for ways to reduce their fixed costs whilst maintaining consistent levels of
customer service and experience. Many of the developments that OYO has made to
its proposition have come about as a result of partner feedback and we are now
offering what we feel is a far more effective and attractive partnership during
an undeniably testing time.”
OYO was founded by Ritesh Agarwal in
2013 and is backed by the world's largest technology-focused venture capital fund,
Softbank’s Vision Fund. Its portfolio now extends to 43,000 leased
and franchised hotels and apartment rental properties with more than one million rooms.
The company launched in the UK in 2018 and works with independently owned, small and mid-sized hotels by
providing services including technology, revenue management, customer service
and brand.
The company signed a distribution
deal with Sabre in January this year.