OYO to bring back homes and studio stays; in talks for partnerships with reality players

OYO Rooms, the online hotel aggregator, is planning to expand its budget segment and again foray into offering service apartments and homestays for leisure markets. The company has high hopes with this segment, which apparently it phased out last year after entering in the segment through OYO Homes and Studio stays, and is in talks with a number of real estate developed for forging partnerships. It has brought on board smaller real estate players for the same and will be working on newly constructed properties as also refurbished older home stays and serviced apartments owned by some realty players.

Ritesh Agarwal, founder and CEO OYO Room, said that “Service apartments is a huge opportunity. We are doing a lot of work there and are signing very large partnerships. For the new apartment category, we are currently finalizing partnerships with real estate builders”. Additionally, the startup is also expanding into mid-premium category TownHouse with a target of 250 rooms by the end of 2017. It has also drafted an extensive international strategy, and has already entered in Malaysian market last year.

OYO Room’s expansion in this budget segment comes at a time when the company is in talks to raise about $300-500 million from SoftBank’s Vision Fund. The deal, which could result in the largest financing round in India’s startup sector since November 2015, could value the Gurgaon-based startup at $1.2 billion making it the latest entrant to the unicorn club.