SoftBank-backed OYO enters UK market with £40 mn investment

SoftBank-backed budget hotel brand OYO Hotels has launched operations in London, the United Kingdom, where it plans to invest £40 million, a company statement said.

It plans to expand to another 10 cities in the island nation, including Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow and Edinburgh, by 2020. Starting operations with four properties in London that offer more than 80 rooms, OYO plans to take the number to over 5,000 rooms in the next 15-18 months, the statement added.

The UK business will be led by British entrepreneur Jeremy Sanders, who co-founded the restaurant chain, Coco di Mama. Over the next year, OYO will build its team by hiring an additional 100 employees across the country.

“The UK has been the topmost international travel destination for several years and last year hosted over 19 million tourists from around the world. Driven by its booming domestic and international travel and budget hospitality needs, the UK presents a multi-billion dollar opportunity for OYO,” said Ritesh Agarwal, founder and chief executive of OYO.

For its London operations, OYO will start off by providing its Townhouse service, which caters to millennials. The properties will operate under the manchise model—a hybrid of the franchise and management contracts.

In June 2018, OYO entered China, which was its third international market.

The company made its international debut in January 2016 by starting its operations in Malaysia. It expanded to Nepal in April last year. It currently operates in more than 150 cities across India, Malaysia and Nepal with over 5,000 exclusive hotels in these countries.