OYO Hotels and Homes, operating over 400 exclusive, leased and franchised hotels in Kerala, as part of its expansion in the state, has lined up an investment of Rs 100 crore towards capex, infrastructure and talent.
The company also intends to open its second OYO Skill Institute in Kerala towards training and development of hospitality professionals. In an effort to support and resurrect small hoteliers and homestay owners in Kerala during last year’s devastating floods, OYO had set up a dedicated fund of Rs 1 crore to support partners with its operational capabilities and more specifically transformation services, that will help them upgrade their properties.
Currently, OYO has over 6,900+ exclusive rooms, 400+ hotels across 10+ cities in Kerala and is set to double its presence and take the count of rooms to 10,000+ by the end of 2019. Since its launch in Kerala in July 2015, OYO has hosted thousands of guests at its hotels while ensuring higher yields for 400+ asset owners.
OYO’s operations in the state are supported by 250+ full-time employees called OYOpreneurs. Today, the majority of the asset owners in Kerala have doubled their income post association with OYO and over 5% have started multiple hotels since joining the OYO family.
Aditya Ghosh, CEO – India & South Asia, OYO Hotels & Homes said, “Kerala is a key market for us at OYO Hotels & Homes. Over the past 4 years, we have already invested over Rs 100 crore in the state. We work in close proximity with our asset owners and are humbled to have received the opportunity of supporting Kerala at the time of the floods by creating a dedicated fund of Rs 1 crore, which was utilized for restoring OYO assets while assisting other smaller hoteliers and homestay owners resurrect their business. We are focused on enabling economic opportunities at every level and are committed to generating gainful employment and entrepreneurship through our growing network of OYO Hotels and Homes in Kerala. We have already created over 3000 direct and indirect jobs in the state and over 1 lakh across India. We are excited to note that over half of the 100,000 jobs created by us were in smaller towns and cities of India. As we grow at scale, so does the possibility of an entrepreneurial ecosystem of direct and indirect employment. We, therefore, aim to double economic opportunities created by 2020.”
Already one of the largest purchasers of linen, toiletries and essential hotel supplies in India, OYO is also helping empower multiple ancillary industries in the hospitality ecosystem by leveraging scale to make bulk procurements that are supporting local businesses. Every month, OYO utilizes over 40 lakh toiletry kits across the 176,000 exclusive rooms which are a part of its chain while procuring 40,000 units of linen.
