OYO Is Now The World's 3rd-Largest Hotel Chain By Room Count

The company claims to have 850,000 rooms overall.
Hilton Hotels and Marriott International are the top two.
Oyo is preparing a listing in the next two to three years, eyeing a valuation of up to $18 billion.

OYO becomes the third largest hotel chain by room count:

Softbank backed OYO today said that it has become the world’s 3rd largest hotel chain in terms of the number of rooms as of June 2019 within 6 years of launching the company. The company has tremendously expanded to more than 800 cities having nearly 23,000 hotels on its platforms and 850,000 rooms overall.

It claims to have around 50,000 rooms in China alone and also counts Indonesia, UK, and the US among its top markets today.

Oyo’s founder and CEO Ritesh Agarwal has said the budget hotel chain will be the world’s largest hotel chain in revenue, scale and margin by 2023, with over two million rooms in Southeast Asia alone.

To get to the top, It needs to beat Hilton Hotels and Marriott International out.

What the founder thinks:

I am very humbled to see the love and support of our customers and real estate owners that have helped us in emerging as the third-largest hotel chain in the world on the basis of the number of rooms,

OYO Hotels & Homes founder and CEO (Group) Ritesh Agarwal said.

Ritesh Agarwal – The Happy Founder. (image courtesy: m.dailyhunt.com)

Oyo last month announced an investment from US-based home-renting company Airbnb in April. Before that, it raised over $1 billion from investors including SoftBank, Didi Chuxing and ride-hailing firm Grab, among others.

Over 500,000 heads rest on Oyo hotel pillows daily today, a testament to the impact we are creating globally. In the last six years, we have enabled job opportunities for over 300,000 young people across India, China, U.S., and the U.K. and will continue to support the growth of the hospitality, travel and tourism industry around the world,” Mr. Agarwal added.

The company remains committed to diverting 40 percent of the funds towards China, of which $100 million will be toward customer experience, quality, and system improvements, and the balance to fuel further growth, talent development, competency building, and infrastructure development in the country.

OYO- The other side of the coin:

In India, its biggest market, Oyo continues to face the wrath of several hotel associations in the different states that said their members are complaining about Oyo’s deep discounting, high commissions, arbitrary changes in the contract, among others.

The challenges in India and China could be a reason why Oyo has set its PR machinery whirling faster than usual. However, the unicorn is also said to be seeking to raise funds at a valuation of $10 billion. Another speculation is, it is building up the momentum for an IPO. According to a report in LiveMint on July 8, Oyo is preparing a listing in the next two to three years, eyeing a valuation of up to $18 billion.

This comes after OYO recently became South Asia’s largest hotel chain. The budget hotel chain has emerged very fast in recent years and is all set launch its IPO probably in the next two or three years.