OYO aims to create a safe online environment for women with its latest initiative

• Internet harassment against women is at an all-time high in India.
• To help address this issue, OYO is discouraging smutty comments directed towards women on its social media tactfully.
• This initiative also led to improved behavior on the company’s social media, with a 42% drop in negative sentiment towards the brand in less than two weeks (precisely 11 days). OYO also observed some users deleting distasteful comments.

“Have we ever come across a woman who hasn’t faced online threats, trolling or harassment at least once in her life? And how are we as members of a responsible society tackling this menace?” These were some of the questions that Mayur Hola, Head of Global Brand, OYO Hotels & Homes pondered upon. The answer came to him through a quick scan on social media.

As internet harassment against women reaches an all-time-high in India, OYO Hotels and Homes decided to tackle this situation tactfully by using Online Relationship Management (ORM).

In OYO’s efforts to make online spaces safe for women, the startup took on online harassers across its social media platforms by identifying offensive or vulgar comments directed towards women and reinforced trollers to spread positivity and cheer. To achieve this, OYO’s in-house Brand and Social Media teams creatively leveraged ORM. A first responder function that is used to curb negative sentiment, and instead got it to motivate users to respect women.


Not only did OYO discourage users who left smutty comments, it’s initiative also led to an improved behavior on the company’s social media -- with a 42% drop in negative sentiment towards the brand in less than two weeks (precisely 11 days).

OYO also observed some users deleting distasteful comments. Additionally, post-OYO’s active outreach campaign, the company’s social media platforms are now witnessing a higher share of positive or neutral speech at 26% and 62% respectively in comparison to only 12% comprising negative comments.

Hola said, “As a hospitality chain, it is our responsibility to provide safe spaces for all our guests and especially women, be it offline at our hotels and indeed online on our social platforms. With this core thought, we mobilised ORM, usually, a function that deals with consumer complaints and transformed it into a first responder that supports women and corrects lewd behavior. This is brand building at its simplest yet deepest level. This campaign started out as a Women’s Day initiative and has now become a policy at OYO. We are now tackling this issue on a daily basis by identifying lewd trolls targeted towards women and schooling them through positive reinforcement.”

Talking about how brands can use their power to spur a change, Hold added, “A brand has to influence behavior, both within the organisation as well as our consumers or external audience. We as a brand want to set an example and not stay at the surface level. This policy does both. It essentially walks the talk of our content. We’re super thrilled to share that since the past couple of weeks since this has gone live, there’s been a significant drop in online harassment of women on our platforms. Similarly, we will continue to mobilise every part of our organisation to address various issues that exist in the social media world. This is a first but very important step in tackling lewd behavior against women. By creatively addressing such social issues, there is a lot more we will continue to fix going forward.”