OYO plans to double its capacity by the end of next year

OYO, the budget hotel aggregator, plans to double its inventory of hotels and rooms to 1.5 lakh by the end of 2018, up 100% from ~70,000 rooms in 2017. The startup may add 10,000-20,000 rooms in current year, and the rest in following year. Ritesh Agarwal, founder and CEO of OYO Rooms, said that “We have been doubling our revenues year-on-year and within this year we will continue to grow our revenues by two-and-a-half times year-on-year. We will see more properties coming up in areas where occupancy rates are high”.

To improve its services the startup is taking several bold steps. It is working on making bookings easier for customers and will provide more details of its properties. Each property will be given a unique number to distinguish it from neighboring OYO properties and the signage are expected to display the address more clearly. More local residents will be allowed to use OYO as there was growing demand for this facility for various reasons. Commenting on the financial position of the firm, the founder said that “Last year in March, we announced that we had gotten into a net transaction profit, which means that for every INR100 we sell, we were making INR100-plus. Our gross margin has been 25% and net margin is at 16%,” Agarwal said. “Our belief is that in the hospitality space, long-term repeats play the biggest role”.