Ritesh Agarwal’s Success in Hospitality Industry Free Essay Example

In 2012, 18 year old named Ritesh Agarwal from Bissam,Cuttak in Orissa who belongs to a bussiness family launched a website named Oravel Stays designed to enable listing and booking of budget accommodation. Three Months later it developed to 100 bed and breakfast homes, guest houses, and small hotels.Shortly after launching Oravel stays, Ritesh Agarwal received a grant of $100,000 as part of the Theil Fellowship from Peter Theil. In 2013, he turned Oravel to OYO with key proposition of offering affordable and standardized accommodation.

Their goal is to Change the way people stay away from home.In 2015, OYO received funds a round 24 million dollars from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital, Greenoaks Capital and DSG Consumer Partners. OYO rooms had sent mass unrequested job offer emails targeting senior and mid-level employees of competitor companies. In August 2015, OYO again rasied to 100 million dollars from Softbank Group, Innoven Capital and existing investors. Later OYO launched OYO home for short-term managed rentals.

OYO home launched over several places in India includes Goa, Shimla, Pondicherry, Udaipur, Kerala etc.

In April 2018, OYO launched its first international OYO Home in Dubai.It currently operates in more than 160 Indian cities including major metros,regional hubs,leisure destinations and pilgrimage towns with a current valuation of nearly 360Cr.The app ranks amongst the best-rated apps on Google Play Store and also been listed as one of the top three apps in the Travel &Local ‘ category.Oyo does more than 15 million booking in last year and has an annual growth run rate of approximately 400 billion every year.

From late 2017 Oyo changed its business model from being a hotel aggregator into franchises. The shift was mainly to reduce operational costs and improve serviceability.As each week brought news of a new high-profile hire, hosannas were sung praising the growing maturity and abilities of Indian startups in attracting the best talent globally.Agarwal has taken a lot of mistakes during his journey. But they tried not to repeat those mistakes. OYO has had its share of hiring misfires or failed to convince candidates to come on board.

Before Abhinav came on board, they had almost finalised a COO. But just days before joining, he wrote an mail outlining his vision for the company. If he had ended up Joining, then company is going to be a very different company.Now Agarwal’s looking to more than double the number of rooms on the network in the next two years. He promises six things to all OYO guests air-conditioning, a flat-screen TV, free wi-fi, complimentary breakfast, spotless linen and clean bathrooms. A best western in the U.S. might not meet all those tests.OYO ties with leading companies for standardized supplies and services. For instance, soaps and shampoos come from herbal major Biotique, Wi-Fi from telecom giant Airtel and TVs from Samsung. Local laundries are retained.OYO puts up its now everywhere bright red and white board outside the hotel and books the rooms through its app, website or call center. It then gets a commission which varies. On average they generated more than half the business for a hotel partner in six to eight months. OYO has also developed a powerful app so customers can brook a room in three taps and cancel in one. About 60 percent of the traffic is now on the app. They can also book a cab and find nearby food options through the app.

The main success of them was they provided free breakfast; free wifi and also they provided their hotels near airports so the customer satisfaction started increasing and they started getting attracted and for the students with specified degree will be provided internships based on the his education, where the duration will be according to it. They are also giving off on the original price according to the location of room and giving cashback when they book using the paytm.The standards are audited every few days so that the customers are assured a quality experience. OYO’s budget stay ranges from 999 to 4,000 rupees. OYO provides property owners with support such as quality standardized supplies and service training. A hotel can be added to their network within 5-6 days after signing of agreement. OYO has been in news for using predatory pricing using its funding money to unfairly remove competition. It was also reported that OYO was not following its own agreements and have threatened the hotels to unilaterally change some of the clauses or suffer the consequences of non-payment. In 2017, OYO rooms were making massive losses without showing any significant revenues.After that OYO regains its market through many offers and discount prices.

Budget and midmarket hotels across the country are angry with OYO because their business is suffering due to deep discounting, high commissions and arbitrary contract changes being sought by the platform according to them.When in 2017 the era of high speed internet started many of the bookings started happening through online In the same year due to increase in booking orders the company has started hiring many local hotels and restaurants under its brand name and they started providing them in the app they started but then the drawback started the consumer books the room for one price but when they received at the hotel the price may differ in bigger or smaller ways which was spread by peoples community and the bookings in oyo started decreasing which lead to massive losses.

The hotel and Banquet hall association of Bareilly warning owners of the hotel that ‘The customer recognises Oyo and not your hotel. You are just a service provider. Oyo charges about 25-30% as commission and the remaining funds need to be utilised for staff salaries, electricity etc. and your profit will be zero.The hotel and Banquet hall association of Mumbai city has asked hotel owners to desist from partnering with Oyo by saying these words A real business partner cares about the partner also but Oyo is just concerned about itself . About 15-18 hotels have done so far.In September 2018, an American girl was sexually harassed by the hotel staff she was forced to confine herself to her room in a hotel and trying to get her to open the door. This place had apparently partnered with hotel aggregator OYO rooms, which has now taken action against the hotel. This incident happened in India, New Delhi.It has strong social media presence on Facebook with over 2.7 lakh fans and a Twitter following of over 8,000 followers.

The brand claims to have over 1.5 million app downloads with a good number of active users. To fast track its growth, OYO Rooms is organizing several campaigns on social media platforms such as: Dubsmash Contest #AurKyaChahiye videos on Youtube. Father’s Day Celebration campaign, and IPL Final Verbal Combat. Jai Hind was the most successful one that featured Bollywood actor Manoj Bajpai and Raveena Tandon.OYO’s traction and market coverage has swiftly increased because of being listed with travel aggregators like Make MyTrip, Clear trip and com.Launch of OYO cafe, OYO We for Women travelers and OYO Premium for high-end customers.Tie-ups with major brands such as Airtel for wi-fi support,ZO rooms, Thomas Cook, Air Pegasus and Tourism and Hospitality Skill councils are the results achieved by the oyo rooms.Awards and recognition of oyo are: First resident Asian to win Thiel Fellowship ,2013 Top 50 Entrepreneurs in 2013 by TATA First Dot powered by NEN Awards. Named as one of the 8 Hottest Teenage Start Up Founders in the World’ in 2013 by Business Insider. TiE-Lumis Entrepreneurial Excellence Award in 2014 & Business World Young Entrepreneur Award in 2015. As of now the company is running in losses.

The company had accumulated losses of Rs 517.9 crore as against shareholders funds of Rs 789.7 crore in march 2016. The company is backed by the venture firms such as Light speed and Softbank. The SoftBank invested $200 million, owns majority of 59.97 percent stake in the firm. By the end of the March 2017 Oyo rooms claimed that they have cut their losses to Rs 325 crore.OYO has invested heavily in Oyo Townhouses. The company has positioned the new category as a friendly neighbourhood hotel targeted at millennials. OYO launched 250 Town house properties with over 10,00 rooms across 12 cities in India by end of 2017OYO is looking to expand Townhouse hotels tom 400 ” 500 by next year. OYO ventured into Uk by launching Townhouse hoteks in London. OYO operates the townhouse brand on leasing and management contract models with 60% management contracts and 40% leased arrangements.Recently The company has announced it had secured $1billion in additional funding to grow its business in china . According to report the growth of OYO Townhouses was 3x more than the growth of the other competitors . Occupancy rate for OYO town models are 90% wchich is more compared to its other competitors.OYO Town house has expanded its inventory by 55% from last year. Other factors that attributed to oyo edge in the Townhouse model are property turnaround time, operational efficiencies and distribution capabilities.

OYO currently operates in more than 349 cities across India, China, Nepal and the Uk.oyo is focusing on digital marketing. It’s strategy is to use all means of social media by attracting customers based on their interest of tourist places. Oyo had reached 15 million booking in last year and has an annual growth run rate of approximately 400 billion every year.oyo has Facebook with over 2.7 lakh followers and a Twitter of over 8,000 followers. The oyo brand app has claims over 1.5 million app downloads with a good number of active users.Oyo market increased because it was listed by travel aggregators like make mytrip and clear trip.oyo has launched oyo cafe and oyo we for women travelers oyo premium for high-end customers.they had tie-up with airtel for providing free wifi.The internet legend started increasing its business in china faster than india because their hospitality chain is linked with the japans Softbank which is being liked by the customers. Currently they have more than 149000 hotel rooms inside india and southern asia. Oyo is giving its good service to the customers and aims to one of the largest hotel chain by 2023 and they are also planning it to expand to other European countries. they are also using social media platforms like facebook and twitter for getting their offers reach to many people.

Oyo reached the people by celebrating fathers’day and IPL final virtual context. oyo is currently broadcasting their adds with the title Aur Kya chahiye?.OYO has started operations in 26 cities in China to expand company’s overseas market. China is the company’s third overseas market, after its successful venture into Malaysia and Nepal.In November, Agarwal brought the business to China, starting with a single listing in the industrial city of Shenzen and less than a year later, travelers in the worlds most populous country can choose from more than 1,000 Oyo-branded hotels and 87,000 rooms in over 170 Chinese cities.Accomplishments!Awarded the TiE-Lumis Entrepreneurial Excellence Award (2014)The first resident Asian to win ’20 Under 20′ Thiel Fellowship (2013)Named one of the Top 50 Entrepreneurs by TATA First Dot Awards (2013)Finalist of Global Student Entrepreneurship Awards-IndiaNamed one of the 8 Hottest Teenage Start Up Founders in the World’ by Business Insider (2013)World’s Youngest CEO at 17(recognized at 16).