OYO owners dub Covid-19 impact assistance by the company as hogwash

OYO, the largest aggregator of budget hotels in the country, is claiming that the hotel company has initiated a slew of initiatives to financially support OYO owners “to blunt the Covid-19” impact, the hotel owners are not ready to accept the claim at its face value.

The hotel owners suspect the content of the offer which the company has released through the media, is another ploy to “dupe” them to stay put in their assets

 OYO had said that the company, in order to “lessen the burden of payments due and accrued”, will waive off multiple charges like value added service charges, wizard membership accruals, etc. from March onwards from the owners. “Under these initiatives, a total of INR 24 crore discounts has already been offered to over 3000 OYO partners and continues to impact several others,”

Covid-19 support incentives to owners include weekly payments and reconciliation, reduced joining fee and complimentary top up for those who want to join OYO Secure programme, retention linked incentives ranging from 50% starting from April, etc.

The asset owners also question the attempt by OYO to garner brownie points in the name of CSR by offering hotels for covid-19 quarantine purposes to government and disaster management authorities while the company is not paying any rental or minimum guarantee.

 Oyo staff in India to go on leave with limited benefits from May 4 for four months, and also asked all employees in the country to accept a cut in their fixed salaries by 25% due to the impact of the Covid-19 on the hospitality industry