OYO makes room for love with a 90% jump in bookings for Valentine’s Day

• Come Valentine’s Day and OYO rooms is where most people are heading for romantic private time.
• This year, OYO has already seen a 90% jump in bookings.
• OYO, in 2016 made a statement that made it a clear V-day favourite – it allowed unmarried couples to book a room in the hotel chain.

The troubled OYO, which has laid off thousands of employees while complaints from hotel owners are on the rise, has a reason to cheer this weekend.

“We’ve received a whopping 90.57% increase in Valentine’s Day bookings. As per our internal data insights, couples account for the maximum share of bookings on 14th February followed by families/ groups of friends celebrating this long weekend, followed by solo bookings,” Gaurav Ajmera, COO, OYO Hotels & Homes - India & South Asia told Business Insider.

Ajmera shared that while Delhi continues to top OYO’s Valentine’s Day booking charts, it is followed by Kolkata, Bangalore and Mumbai. “Another fun fact is that a guest reserved a stay with OYO for Valentine’s Day as early as 24th August 2019,” he said.

How OYO became a V-Day favourite

India is a country of paradoxes. Come Valentine’s Day, groups and activists threaten those who want to celebrate it saying, “unmarried couples will be married if spotted together”. At the same time, it is tough for youngsters to ignore the festival as their inboxes are flooded with Valentine’s Day offers.

OYO caught on to it as early as 2016 when it made a statement that made it a clear V-day favourite – it will allow unmarried couples to book a room in the hotel chain.

It is solving an existing mindset and problem wherein couples in India face inconveniences as few hotels allow them to book a room. As these hotel-policies were not communicated to them earlier, OYO launched a "relationship mode" on its app, through which users could find couple friendly hotels.

Since then, OYO has run campaigns specifically for Valentine’s Day with hashtags like #StayInLove, #NoRoomForHate, #ValentinesTogetherAlone and #CheckInForLove. Not just in India, this year OYO is running V-day campaigns in Malaysia, UAE and more.

Come V-Day and the OYO joke takes over with memes.



All this has translated into bookings. According to OYO’s Love Index report for Valentine’s Day, in 2019 it had seen a 112% rise in bookings. For 2020, the number could be higher if last minute bookings are added on.

See Also:
Here are the top 10 romantic getaways for the Valentines Day weekend