Dive Brief:
- India-based hospitality technology company OYO announced strategic plans to expand its U.S. hotel footprint this year, according to a release obtained by Hotel Dive.
- The company will add more than 250 hotels across the U.S. in new markets and in those where it already has a presence like Miami, New York City and Los Angeles.
- OYO expanded across the U.S. last year, though on a smaller scale. The company’s Head of Business Development, Nikhil Hed, said “strong growth potential” in major markets across the U.S., as well as positive RevPAR fundamentals, bolstered this year’s expansion plans.
Dive Insight:
Building on its U.S. growth in 2023, OYO plans to bring hundreds of hotels to major U.S. markets including Boston, Las Vegas, Orlando and San Francisco, San Jose and San Diego, California.
These markets were selected because OYO has seen particularly “strong growth potential” in Florida, Nevada and California, according to Hed.
OYO is a global platform that provides hotel owners with technology products and services that aim to increase revenue and ease operations. OYO also operates OYO Rooms, a hospitality chain of leased and franchised hotels and homes.
Last year, the company added approximately 100 U.S. hotels to its portfolio across Oregon, Washington, Oklahoma, Georgia, Florida and Texas. OYO first launched in the U.S. in 2019 and has since expanded to 35 states.
“The eventual objective is to ensure that every 1 in 10 hotels in the US can proudly associate itself with the OYO brand,” Hed said in a statement.
OYO saw strong RevPAR growth across the U.S. in 2023, outpacing that of the budget hotel industry, the company claims. According to OYO, its domestic per room revenue was up 17% year over year in 2023, while the total budget hotel segment’s per-room revenue saw a 9% decline.
OYO International CEO Gautam Swaroop attributed recent “tremendous interest from hotel owners to partner with OYO” to the company’s ability to “drive significant revenue.”
In addition to its physical expansion across the U.S., OYO launched a virtual front desk solution for its domestic hotel partners in October. The self-check-in technology, powered by ChatGPT, can reduce front desk operations expenses by roughly 60%, saving an average hotel up to $30,000 annually, according to OYO.
OYO also recently partnered with Stripe to “ease the payment experience” for its customers and hotel owners in the U.S., the company said.
