Appointment | Nitin Thakur appointed as OYO's new Head of Communications

Nitin comes with over two decades of experience and would be responsible for looking at both internal and external communications for OYO

OYO has announced the appointment of Nitin Thakur as the Head of Communications. In this role, Nitin will be responsible for driving OYO's reputation forward and delivering the company's mission of empowering entrepreneurs of small and independent hotels and homes by providing full-stack technology that increases earnings and eases operations while bringing affordable and trusted accommodation that guests can book instantly.

A seasoned professional, Nitin comes with over two decades of experience and would be responsible for looking at both internal and external communications for OYO. He would be a part of OYO’s global leadership team.

Commenting on the development, Kavikrut, Chief Growth Officer - OYO, said, “At OYO, we are firm believers in communicating proactively and transparently. Since OYO’s early days, our communication strategy across the press, social media, and new emerging mediums has been a key lever in establishing OYO as a brand that is recognized and trusted by partners and guests alike. I am excited to welcome  Nitin to the leadership team and partner with him to further our communications strategy. As OYO recovers from the pandemic, Nitin will enable our OYOpreneurs to bring the OYO story to more partners and guests across the world.”

Rohit Kapoor, CEO of OYO -  India & Southeast Asia added, “I am thrilled and equally excited to collaborate with a veteran like Nitin who brings in a great deal of experience and learning to OYO. As both India and OYO move ahead on the path of recovery from the impact of COVID-19, Nitin would play an important role in steering our communication efforts for all stakeholders, including our patrons, guests, and OYOpreneurs. We are glad to have him on board and look forward to collaborating closely with him.”

Nitin Thakur, the newly appointed Head of Communications for OYO, said, “Today, OYO is synonymous with building technology for small and independent hotels and homes. The company has been truly innovative across the industries it operates in and has emerged as one of the few globally local brands from India. Its footprint extends across India, Southeast Asia, and Europe among other geographies. I am truly excited to take on this mandate and work with passionate, mission-oriented individuals for continuing the momentum of OYO’s recovery and communicating its fabulous journey to the world.”

Prior to OYO, Nitin was a part of the Group Executive Leadership Team at the Max Group where his role involved strengthening the Group’s reputation through traditional and digital media and providing leadership and guidance for strategic campaigns such as mergers & acquisitions for the Group’s operating companies, crisis management, etc. In his previous tenures, Nitin has worked with Microsoft India, managing product advocacy and communications and large communication consultancies advising various Tata Group companies on their reputation management.

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

OYO Cuts 25% Salary Companywide, After Furloughs

Gurugram-based hospitality unicorn OYO Hotels and Homes has now asked its employees to “accept” 25% salary deduction as it looks to overcome the impact on revenue from the Covid-19 pandemic.It  will be effective for April-July 2020 payroll.

OYO has decided to put some employees on leave with limited benefits from May 4, 2020 to August 2020. The benefits would include medical insurance and parental insurance, school fee reimbursement, and ex gratia support.

The development comes amid reports that OYO has told its UK employees that more employees would be furloughed under the government’s job retention scheme. High earners are also being asked to take a temporary pay cut.

OYO group CEO Ritesh Agarwal had earlier asked employees to go on temporary leave and had offered to look after the medical and healthcare benefits of all the employees across all its regions.

Agarwal has also forgone his salary for the year and senior leadership have been asked to take a 25% from the salary. Other Senior Executives across the world have voluntarily contributed 25%-50% of their salary.

As OYO tries to cut employee costs, the company is offering support to its hotel partners. The startup claimed that it has waived off multiple charges which are paid by partner hotels from March onwards. A benefit of around INR 24 Cr has been offered to over 3000 OYO partners.

OYO has also partnered with multiple lending institutions including fintech startups, NBFCs, add private sector banks to facilitate adequate financing for hotel transformation, Capex and working capital requirements of hotel-partners.

A retention linked discount has also been launched for a few hotel partners. It ranges from 50% on base fees for April and May. For beyond April, OYO might offer an extended discount until June.

OYO Accused Of Listing Treebo Hotels Without Clearances

Gurugram-based hospitality unicorn OYO has found itself in a fresh battle against its competitor, Treebo. The company’s executive allegedly submitted “invalid” no-objection certificates from about 70 hotels to the OTA Booking.com .This was reportedly done to change the ownership listing of the properties to OYO from rival Treebo.

To begin with, when hospitality chains like OYO and Treebo list a hotel, they receive permissions from these hotels to promote the hotels on their websites as well as other OTAs like MakeMyTrip, Yatra, Booking.com etc.

The OTA said that after making necessary checks it had identified that the NOCs provided by OYO for these properties were “invalid”.

Booking.com reportedly said that it required accommodation partners to abide by all applicable laws and compliances. “There is a standard process that we follow at Booking.com for listing properties and the same process is being followed right now as well,” the company said.

OYO did not respond to Inc42’s queries on the matter till the time of publication.

The development comes at a time when the travel and hospitality industry has been severely hit by the Covid-19 pandemic and quarantines. OYO had recently told its employees that since the outbreak, OYO’s occupancy rate and revenues have dropped by more than 50 to 60% and the company’s balance sheet has come under severe stress.

OYO CEO and the Executive Leadership Team to Take Voluntary Salary Cuts

COVID-19 has impacted the global hospitality industry significantly with occupancies of various hotel chains being affected drastically. In this unprecedented and difficult period, Ritesh Agarwal, the Founder & Group CEO, OYO Hotels & Homes, has decided to forego 100% of his salary for the rest of the year. The company’s entire executive leadership team has taken a voluntary pay cut starting at 25%, with many opting for an additional uncapped amount, and some going up to 50% to enable building the runway for the company. This would be effective April 2020 and the entire company is standing together to tide over these times.

It has been a matter of pride for OYO Hotels & Homes that it has retained each and every single leader in the CXO group in the history of the company, and in a difficult time like this, the executive leadership has come together as one strong entity as true partners of the company.

Commenting on the development, Ritesh Agarwal, Founder & Group CEO said, “The current situation the world over is deeply concerning to each and every one of us. OYO is doing everything to support the world with its limited resources in this pandemic from making isolation centers to finding a safe place for first responders. Given the current business situation, which is unprecedented for our industry globally

Layoffs, rejig one-time exercise, will be over soon: Oyo CEO

Some parts of Oyo Hotels & Homes weren’t probably ready for the pace of growth it has witnessed and the hospitality chain is trying to address such issues this year, says its new chief executive for India and South Asia, Rohit Kapoor in an exclusive interview to The Economic Times. While confirming reports of job cuts at the company, he tells Anumeha Chaturvedi that it is asking about 15-20% of its 12,000 employees to go in a “one-time exercise” that “is going to end very soon”. There is no  deadline from Japanese investor SoftBank to report operational profitability on some businesses, he says, and adds that the management is committed to improving relations with hotel partners.

Oyo founder Ritesh Agarwal has reportedly said the company is asking some of its employees to move to a new career. What explains this?
The question that whether some staff members are being asked to go is correct. Over the last one and a half years, there has been an increase in revenue to about 3x, and we had 1-million-plus rooms globally by the end of 2019. But I don’t think we have any hesitation in admitting that growing at the pace that we did over the last three years, we did sometimes go ahead of ourselves … What we mean is that maybe all parts of the organisation were not ready for that pace of growth and that scale of  of operations, and 2020 is the year when we are taking active steps to address this. We have a clear roadmap for continuing to drive success for Oyo for this year and beyond based on factors like sustainable growth.

Hospitality Sector Teams Up Online to Help During the Crisis

The hotel and lodging industry has been pulling together online resources to help each other and their communities during the coronavirus crisis.

Helping re-purpose beds for medical use may be the most obvious possible way to help. A new tech platform launched earlier this week can make the matchmaking process easier between lodging operators and local emergency efforts. Owners of a property can make beds or buildings available by using an online form to specify how they’re willing to help. Cloudbeds has worked with Sabre, Marriott, and RateGain and others on the effort.

Hotels for Helpers, in the Netherlands, is a booking engine offering discounted rooms for those in need, in an effort joined by tech provider Mews.

A new reservations portal provides accommodation to healthcare workers at no cost in Lisbon and Porto, Portugal. It’s called Rooms Against Covid, and GuestCentric Systems and HiJiffy created it.

Oyo Hotels & Homes said it would open the doors of its more than 300 hotels in the U.S. to offer free stays to doctors, nurses, and other medical first responders who are helping in the fight against coronavirus.

ONLINE RESOURCES FOR OPERATIONAL SURVIVAL

The hospitality sector also has to heal itself from the wounds of travel bans and the economic crash. Here’s a roundup of some of the hotel and lodging sector resources of note:

Travel tech company RateGain has put together a “Better Tomorrow” resource page to help hoteliers with insights into lessons to learn from Asia. The page draws partly on resources from the trade group Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International (HSMAI), which has its own online resources, too.

Workers who have lost their jobs and are struggling with mental stress can turn to the U.S. site Restaurant After Hours for links to resources. In Canada, Service Hospitality, a non-profit association for workers, has created a Covid-19 resources page

For more information please visit on below mention side :

https://www.cloudbeds.com/covid-19-hospitality-helps/

https://servicehospitality.com/coronavirus-guide-for-hospitality/

Oyo sees signs of recovery in China after coronavirus outbreak

 Oyo Hotels and Homes has started to see a recovery in bookings in China, its second-largest market, as the coronavirus outbreak eases up in some parts of the country, the Indian hospitality startup’s Chief Executive Ritesh Agarwal

 A rise in imported coronavirus cases and the lifting of restrictions on movement in some cities in China have raised the prospect of a second wave of infections that could thwart the country’s economic recovery

Oyo, which is backed by Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp , has cut thousands of jobs this year, including in China, as the company focuses on becoming profitable and grapples with the coronavirus outbreak.

Oyo would offer free accommodation at its roughly 300 U.S. hotels to doctors, nurses and other medical first responders who are helping to tackle the coronavirus outbreak.

Corona crisis: OYO offers free stay to doctors & nurses in US; Ivanka Trump, Paytm boss bowled over by gesture

 Ivanka Trump, the senior advisor to President Donald Trump, has lauded an initiative by Ritesh Agarwal-founded Indian start-up OYO Hotels to offer free stays to doctors, nurses in the US helping in the fight against the novel coronavirus, describing the gesture as "impactful acts of benevolence".

The OYO press release said that beginning March 24, medical first responders will receive free accommodations at any OYO Hotel in the United States so they can sleep, shower or just get off their feet and recharge.

The medical personnel can call a designated number to get their reservation for the nearest OYO and with a valid active First Responder identification, OYO Hotels will cover all the costs.

OYO Reports $604 Mn Revenue In India With $83 Mn Loss In FY19

OYO says its business across markets is evolving across three key growth stages.

• Stage one: In this stage, the focus of the company is on scale and presence.

• Stage two: Here the major focus is on creating a strong brand resonance and ensuring improved gross margin.

• Stage three: In mature markets such as India, where OYO will focus on maintaining a strong brand presence and recall while ensuring a clear path to profitability, operational excellence, and a strong gross margin.

  Oyo Business Insight:

• The company reduced its losses from 24% to 14% of revenue in FY19

• OYO hosted over 180 Mn guests from over 120 nationalities in the calendar year 2019.

• India contributes to 63.5% of fiscal revenue while international markets generate 36.5% of total revenue

• Increase in both daily guest check-ins across its network as well as an increase in hotels and asset owners across the world,

• In 2019, over 90% revenue coming from repeat and organic users with repeat alone contributing to 73% of revenues

• Gross margin increased from 10.6% in FY18 to 14.7% in FY19, it indicates that the strength of its business model and a positive correlation between market share and economics

OYO Hotels & Homes elevates Gaurav Ajmera as COO, India & South Asia

Oyo Hotels & Homes appoint Gaurav Ajmera as Chief Operating 0fficer (COO) comes into high-quality from May 1, 2019

The mission behind this is to move a step closer to its goal of becoming the world’s largest and most preferred chain.

“In a short span of six years, we have expanded its footprints to over 800 cities in 80 countries. We have a robust, resilient and diversified group of leaders who personify distributed leadership. As we continue to grow from strength to strength and tap new opportunities, we need leaders who are passionate to create an impact and bring with them an entrepreneurial mindset so appointing him as COO will take us one step closer to our mission.

He is one of the early OYOpreneurs and individual at the back of the company’s growth and growth across Country during his 4-year stint as the head of the north region

His incredible insights and experience along with his customer-first and innovation-driven approach make him an excellent choice for this role. His appointment further strengthens OYO’s South Asia leadership that is dedicated and focused towards building the most loved and preferred hospitality brand.”

Reporting into Aditya Ghosh, chief executive officer, India & South Asia, OYO Hotels & Homes

As a key partner his responsibility are :

• Building and driving world-class capability in revenue management,

• Driving offline sales and

• Overall delivery of excellent customer experience for the core franchise business.

  Let’s know something about him

  Gaurav, a fitness enthusiast holds a B.Tech and M.Tech degree in Chemical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. Before OYO, He had a successful stint with Schlumberger.