Promising a pleasant experience at affordable pricing, Ritesh Agarwal, CEO and founder, OYO Rooms, on the success of an idea. BY ROMA B
The genesis of most start ups is borne out of personal experiences or incidents of the founder(s). “The idea germinated to solve a problem that I personally experienced as a traveller. While travelling across the country on a minimal budget, I always had unpredictable, less-than-desired experiences from booking through check out. I felt that there was a huge demand for quality hotels in the budget segment in our country. Therefore, the idea of offering a standardised experience at an affordable price using technology to drive a seamless experience was born and OYO Rooms was founded”, says Ritesh Agarwal, CEO and founder, OYO Rooms, arguably India’s fastest growing network of branded hotels.
During this time, that he travelled across the country and stayed at over 100 budget hotels, made him realise the difficulty in getting a pleasant and reliable consumer experience in this segment. Therefore, in a quest to make these affordable stays ‘real’, he started OYO Rooms. His vision was to offer rooms for the business, leisure and/or pilgrim traveller, high-quality rooms with amenities like spotless linen, comfortable beds, clean attached bathrooms, 24X7 room service and complementary services like a toiletries kit, free WI-FI and breakfast in all its rooms. The operations are backed by a 24X7 call centre, with trained staff and a dedicated customer service team. Agarwal adds, “We are the largest network of branded hotels in the country with 550 plus hotels across 25 cities today. We were the first to provide a standardised affordable experience in the budget segment of the hotel industry in India. OYO Rooms promises availability at the most convenient location, standardisation of experience, ease of use driven by technology and above all, affordability with prices starting at Rs 999/night”.
In a day and age where every customer is tech-savvy and wants everything at his fingertips on his mobile or tablet, we ask Agarwal, the role and importance of technology at OYO. “Technology is integrated into four stages of a guest’s interaction with the brand — booking, check-in, stay and check-out. We have a modern mobile app which allows booking of a room in a matter of seconds; the app also enables the customer to order room service. Tablets are installed across our properties with our proprietary app which enables seamless check-in, check-out and guest service, while also integrating timely feedback and reviews. We have a deeper relationship with our hotel partners and customers. Technology is at the centre of this relationship — bringing in operational efficiencies in our everyday dealings with our hotel partners as well as redefining the way customer interacts with the brand. We strive to control end-to-end experience of our guests from booking through check out”.
Understandably technology plays an important role, but there must be a differentiator between OYO and other players in the market as is recently seen by the emergence of a plethora of portals and travel websites that have begun offering budget rooms. There are even offers that combine ticketing and accommodation. “We are the first-movers in the standardised budget segment space. In recent months, we have seen several other players enter this space. This affirms the fact that there is merit in what we are doing. Our unique business model could disrupt the hospitality industry as we know it. Moreover, the presence of a larger number of players will be beneficial for the hotel as well as the customer. One thing is for sure — we will see a lot of innovations in this sector in the next couple of years” say Agarwal even as he adds, “We have identified a problem and we are striving hard to address it. There’s still a long way to go before we are termed as a success story. The growth we have seen can be attributed to three factors – our awesome hotel partners and customers who have consistently placed their faith in us, our dedicated work force and our asset-light business model which helps us scale rapidly”.
And to validate all that has been said and written about, OYO in March 2015 raised Rs 150 crore from Lightspeed, Sequoia, Greenoaks Capital and DSG Consumer Partners. This will help the two year old company to realise its ambition of becoming the largest technology-enabled network of hotels in the world.
Continuing with its rapid expansion drive, OYO Rooms has grown its network to 550 hotels in 25 cities today, from one hotel in Gurgaon less than two years ago; and has set for itself and ambitious and aggressive target of 2,000 rooms in 45 cities by the end of the year. Only natural for a company being led by, perhaps one of India’s youngest entrepreneurs, who embarked on his journey when he was only 17 years old!
