OYO strikes strategic partnership with Ctrip in China

Gurugram-headquartered hospitality unicorn OYO has inked a strategic partnership with China’s largest online travel services firm Ctrip to collaborate across multiple areas of business including customer acquisition and branding.

According to a statement, the partnership between OYO’s China business Jiudian and Ctrip will aim to boost demand by providing access to customers of both brands in addition to online-to-offline services integration, data operation, and branding.

The association intends to exploit the potential synergies arising from OYO’s low-cost asset base and Ctrip’s distribution network and platform ecosystem, the statement added.

“Our multi-brand strategy enables us to meet the needs of every type of traveller and this partnership with Ctrip gives us an opportunity to extend our offerings to millions of discerning Chinese travellers looking for standardised, quality offerings,” said Sam Shih, chief operating officer of OYO China.

As part of the partnership, OYO Jiudian will work with Ctrip to help its asset owners with marketing support and greater visibility online besides programmes on improving and upskilling the talent pool, harnessing technology, improving customer traffic to the hotel’s listing and streamlining operations with respect to bookings generated from Ctrip.

Oravel Stays Pvt. Ltd, which operates OYO Hotels and Homes, recently claimed that it is the second-largest hotel group in China by number of rooms . Since launching in China in the first half of 2017, the hospitality chain said it has expanded its presence to 320 cities, 10,000 hotels and 450,000 rooms in the country.

The company claimed to have surpassed the scale of traditional and established hotel brands such as Home Inn and Hanting in China. It had earlier announced a strategic partnership with Alipay.

Ctrip became the largest stakeholder in MakeMyTrip, India’s foremost online travel agency, following a share-swap deal with South African conglomerate Naspers last month. Apart from owning 49% of MakeMyTrip’s shares, Ctrip now occupies five of the seats on the board of the Gurugram-based firm.

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In March this year, OYO had renewed its commercial agreement with MakeMyTrip for another five years. According to a report by The Economic Times, the deal will see MakeMyTrip dissociating itself with OYO’s rivals Treebo Hotels and FabHotels.

As per the terms of the deal, OYO reportedly pays a commission ranging between 15% and 25% to MakeMyTrip, which is slightly higher than what it pays to other online travel agencies.