OYO Full Form

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The term ‘OYO’ has been popularly used in recent past years. Its popularity? The logic is simple: the customers got a home-like feeling away from their home. People traveling to different parts of this country now do not have the headache of searching hotels, room availability, and such. They can simply download the OYO app and select hotel rooms of their own choice. 

The founder of this initiative was inspired by this very problem of searching hotels and checking the rooms manually, thus he came up with this brilliant idea that now you can book your room according to your preference much ahead, you do not need to wander for hotel rooms right after coming to an unknown place.

In this section we will know more about the full form of OYO or OYO’s full name, we will answer ‘what is the meaning of OYO?’ or ‘what is meant by OYO rooms?’ and such other related aspects of this term will be considered in our discussion.

OYO Full Form  

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The full form of OYO is ‘On Your Own Rooms’. OYO rooms full form are the same expansion. You must have this app installed on your cell phone or you must have availed of the service of OYO on your last trip to an exotic location for summer vacation, but did you ever know the full form of OYO? Well, there are many such people abundantly availing the service of OYO, yet do not know the full form or its meaning. 

Our main motive in this section is to update with the full form of this popular acronym OYO. So, as mentioned OYO’s long-form is ‘On Your Own Rooms’ but what is the meaning of OYO? The meaning of the acronym is self-explained in the acronym. Literally, it means booking rooms according to self-requirement and thus the acronym itself assures the customer that the rooms are truly theirs, this is a good marketing strategy. OYO full form in English and OYO meaning in English refers to the same as mentioned above.  

Own Your Rooms in OYO

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As previously discussed, the expansion of OYO is On Your Own Rooms. OYO is India's largest hotel network, this network spreads to more than 199 cities. The headquarters of OYO is at Gurugram, a place in Haryana. The brand’s ambition is to become the world's most loved and preferred hotel brand. OYO under its name has 6500 hotels, successful in offering a standardized and comfortable stay at an unmatched and reasonable price.

Originally, OYO started its services with a single hotel in Gurugram and today it has approximately 70,000 rooms in 7,000 hotels throughout India (record of 2017). Mr. Ritesh Agarwal is the man behind this beaming establishment, the founder & CEO of OYO. OYO does not function on its own but it simply ties up with the hotels and the brand only ensures the hotels offer quality services to the guests who avail of their service that is who book rooms through the OYO platform or via the app, as is defined by OYO.

Attractive Features Making OYO Popular

The attractive features which make OYO so popular and is the largest hotel chain serving in India because of the following notable points:

• Standardized Service: OYO provides and also maintains the same amenities, facilities, and ambiance in order to ensure an awesome experience across all their rooms.

• Quite Affordable: OYO offers rooms at great affordable prices as compared to other rooms of budget hotels.

• Technology Driven approach: The main feature is that OYO uses good technology to deliver better services with more efficient operations which helps in management. The app simply allows you to book your own room in just 3 clicks or just within 5 to 10 seconds.

Expansion of OYO Rooms

OYO Rooms (also known as OYO), or OYO Hotels & Homes, is truly an Indian Multinational hospitality chain that runs on leased and franchised hotels, homes, and standard living spaces. The hotel service start-up was founded in the year 2013 by the honoured man Ritesh Agarwal. OYO initially worked with budget hotels. His start-up has expanded far and wide globally with thousands of other hotels, vacation homes, and million other rooms in:

• India

• Malaysia

• UAE

• China

• Nepal

• Brazil

• Mexico

• UK

• Philippines

• Saudi Arabia

• Sri Lanka

• Vietnam

• Indonesia and in other countries.  

Sponsors of OYO

In September in the year 2018, OYO was able to raise around $1 billion, out of which the RoC filing was of the amount $100 million that was raised from Star Virtue Investment Ltd. this was made on 13 February in the year 2019. 

Also in February of 2019, OYO was offered $100 million funding from the Chinese vehicle for the purpose of hiring the company Didi Chuxing.

The company had its investors from far and wide the continent which included - Softbank Group, Didi Chuxing which was a Chinese company, Greenoaks Capital, Lightspeed India, Sequoia India, Airbnb, China Lodging Group, and Hero Enterprise.  

In July of 2019, the Founder & CEO of the company Ritesh Agarwal, via the RA Hospitality Holdings (Cayman) signed a $2 billion deal to buy back the shares from his existing investors- Lightspeed Venture Partners and from Sequoia India, this was done in order to increase his stake in the company to around 30%. After which the company was valued at approximately $10 billion with this deal. 

Also, in October 2019, the company, OYO raised Series F funding of $1.5 billion that was led by SoftBank Group, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Sequoia India. 

Financial Figures of OYO

This is the data of the year 2019, where OYO has registered a revenue of USD 951 million, which is 4.5 times increase on a year-on-year basis, this is as compared to USD 211 million.

Takeovers and Collaborations of OYO

There are many acquisitions and partnerships done by OYO. Following are the acquisitions and the partnerships established by the company –

1. In the year 2019, OYO had acquired Hooters Casino Hotel near Las Vegas.

2. In March of 2016, OYO had acquired the team of Qlik Pass, which was founded by Rahul Gupta & Rishi Swami that was set up and led the Data Science Department.  

3. In March, in the year 2018, OYO had acquired the Chennai-based service apartment operator called Nova scotia Boutique Homes.

4. In the year 2018, the company had acquired Weddingz. in, which is a Mumbai-based online marketplace for all wedding venues.

5. In 2019, OYO and Airbnb had announced a strategic partnership. Airbnb has invested in OYO and the company will list their properties on the Airbnb platform as well.

6. In March 2019, OYO had announced a 1400 crore investment in their branch located in India and South Asia businesses to increase the infrastructure, strengthen their technology and their internal capability. 

Products and Services

OYO Rooms, OYO Hotels & OYO Homes has an approach of a multi-brand. They include the following:

1. OYO Townhouse – A neighbourhood hotel in the midscale segment, this is targeted at millennial travellers.

2. OYO Home - India's maiden Home Management System offers private homes to people in different locations, they are fully managed by OYO. 

3. OYO Vacation Homes - they are the world's 3rd largest vacation home.

4. Silver Key – this was launched in April of 2018; it caters to the needs of the corporate travellers who undertake business trips every year for a short or long time period. 

5. Capital O - offering hotel booking services. 

6. Palette - they offer the curated staycation for those who are in search of an intuitive experience at very competitive prices, they offer an upper-end leisure resort. 

7. Collection O - they offer the facility of easy booking and renting services to business travellers. 

8. OYO LIFE – these are targeted at the young professionals who are in search of fully managed homes on a long-term rental, and at affordable prices. 

9. YO! HELP – is basically a self-help tool that offers and supports check-ins, check-outs, and the payment system. 

Nevertheless, Criticisms Exist!

In the year 2019, OYO rooms planned to initiate a digital register mechanism that would allow sharing the customer data in real-time with the government. This was of course a threat to public privacy. OYO was also accused of using the system of predatory pricing

In the year 2018, the company had also sent mass unsolicited job offers via emails targeting the senior- and mid-level employees of the competitors.  

Amazing Facts on OYO

Some mention-worthy facts about OYO are as follows:

• In 2012, originally OYO started as ‘Oravel Stays’ to enable listing and its booking of the budgeted hotels. He renamed it ‘OYO’ in the year 2013.

• Currently, OYO has 17,000 employees globally working. Out of which 8000 are from India and South Asia. 

• The company has also set up around 26 training institutes across India that offer hospitality coaching to enthusiasts in hospitality.

• Recent News: In April 2021, several news channels claimed that OYO had filed for bankruptcy, well the CEO Ritesh Agarwal clarifies saying that it is untrue. However, Mr. Agarwal admitted that NCLAT (National Company Law Appellate Tribunal) formulated an insolvency resolution process on OYO Hotels on the basis of a monetary dispute petitioned by a hotelier.