Once blocked, OYO will now list its hotels on MakeMyTrip's platforms

Budget hospitality chain OYO will now list its hotels on platforms run by MakeMyTrip as part of a partnership with the country's largest online travel services provider. 

OYO said in a statement that the partnership with bring together OYO’s large base of economy, mid-segment and vacation rentals assets and the customer base served by MakeMyTrip, Goibibo & RedBus.

The partnership comes more than two years after MakeMyTrip had removed OYO’s inventory from its platform citing strategic overlaps. During an investor call a few weeks ago, a senior MakeMyTrip executive said that the company was likely to “revisit” its strategy with regard to OYO.

Ritwik Khare, chief business officer (hotel & accomodations) at MakeMyTrip Ltd, said the partnership was prompted by a massive surge in the budget hotels category which had ignited growth in the hospitality sector.

“We are committed to bring the best of travel experience to our customers, it’s why we offer them a variety of options across price segments, particularly in the fragmented economy and mid-segment hotels, where there is a greater need to build assurance around stay experience," said Rajesh Magow, co-founder and chief executive officer (India) of MakeMyTrip Ltd.

The partnership will allow customers to select from a range of options — from economy and mid market hotels, next-door hotels to fully-managed homes — across multiple tourist destinations.

“Our mission is to ensure the quality problem is solved in India’s hospitality market by creating beautiful living spaces and offering varied experiences to travellers and this partnership is a big step forward in that direction,” said Maninder Gulati, Chief Strategy Officer, OYO.

Soon after blocking OYO in 2015, MakeMyTrip had come out with its own version of budget hotel rooms, branded 'Value+'. Goibibo, which was merged with MakeMyTrip early last year and had also blocked OYO at one time, aggregates unbranded budget accommodations via GoStays. 

OYO was founded in 2012 as a budget hotel aggregator by Ritesh Agarwal, who was just 17 years old at the time. OYO is its budget brand which follows the marketplace model. Townhouse, which OYO launched in last January, is a managed hotel brand positioned as a friendly neighbourhood accommodation. 

The firm, which backed by Japanese conglomerate SoftBank, operates in 230 cities across India, Malaysia and Nepal.
OYO founder and chief executive officer Ritesh Agarwal recently told TechCircle that the firm has repositioned itself as a franchisee/hotel operator and is currently moving its whole inventory in that direction. 

Nasdaq-listed MakeMyTrip Ltd had announced earlier this month that it had doubled its revenue but posted a loss in the third quarter of the financial year 2017-18. The firm had turned in a profit in the corresponding quarter of 2016-17.