Exclusive: OYO Rooms’ CEO says soon staying at OYO hotels will be like staying at luxurious homes! Easy walk-in, easy walk-out

There’s a game setter in every business, one that makes a rather low-key entry but its sudden insight and innovations completely transforms the rules of the game. Everyone else then has to follow its rules otherwise they may cease to exist. It wouldn’t be going too far if we say OYO Rooms may become that game setter for the Indian hospitality industry in the times to come.

After having tied up with Ola, MobiKwik and Zomato to solve basic problems of travel, payment and food, the company is now busy finding ways to do away with check-in formalities and time-consuming manual check-out procedures – two tedious processes each and every Indian customer has to go through at every hotel in the country. The idea is to ensure easy walk-ins and walk-outs for a hassle-free experience.

Ritesh Agarwal, the 21-year-old CEO of the OYO Rooms who has already inspired one whole generation of youth with his start-up, says he wants that his customers savor luxury, service and comfort of staying at a hotel but also feel at home at the same time. It’s not possible, however, by adhering to the conventional ways of running the hotel business, he feels.

“Showing your ID while entering or doing a manual check-out when leaving – are these the things you do at home? No. If I have them in hotels, how will you feel at home during your stay then?” asks Ritesh. But the question is how is OYO planning to ease the process of payments?

Via tech-based initiatives is Mr Agarwal’s answer!

So for example, the company has seamlessly integrated the MobiKwik wallet into the OYO app. “It facilitates one tap payment. It’s like checking-out of a hotel without the need of stopping to pay,” says Ritesh, adding that such valued partnerships are helping him in maximizing the consumer experience as well as making OYO services better.

For that matter, even his partnerships with OLA and Zomato have helped him in a similar way – finding transport to OYO properties and making the nearest food options accessible to the customers. Both being basic needs of OYO customers that needed to be addressed.

So, OYO's strategy is simple – identifying the pain points first and rather intelligently (which many in the game have failed to see or perhaps ignored) and immediately addressing them by providing the customer easy on-the-go options.

Even though the budget hotel aggregator has no plans of foraying into other sectors as of now, with the launch of OYO WE it is definitely trying to diversify within the sector.

The idea of WE was born after OYO, Ritesh says, was flooded with queries from customers asking if there were any women specific properties.

Realizing that there was a demand for it, he was quick to launch WE in January this year. “It met with tremendous response and excellent feedback from the women guests. Now, we want to provide more women with a comfortable zone which gives them their privacy and space,” says Ritesh.

Notably, WE has all women staff, a toiletry kit customized for women, on-call beauty parlor services and a special selection of books. Currently, there are three WE properties in Gurgaon, Delhi and Noida. The plan is to have fifteen WE properties across 10 cities by the end of this year.

That’s not all. Talks are also on between OYO and Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation for bringing in occupants for MTDC's unsold rooms in resorts. The deal may be sealed under a revenue-share agreement model.

“It’s a great opportunity and will enable us to bring our experience of operation and sales to a large number of properties. Also, through this partnership we will gain access to running some of Maharashtra’s favorite hotels, and we can’t be more thrilled about it. We are still in the process of finalizing things with them,” says Ritesh.

So much on OYO's future plans.

For now, it has announced offers keeping in mind the upcoming festive season. It’s running a flat 30% off pan India, for check-in/check-out till 31 October. (Coupon Code: OYOS30); a flat 50% off on OYO’s select premium properties, Pan India on properties above 2000 INR (Code: PR50). Those heading to Goa during the peak season (October, November and December), there's good news as the company is giving 30% discount across all its properties there. (Code: GOA30).

As the demand graph for OYO Rooms goes up among customers as well as hotels, it plans to expand to 150 cities and to have 50,000 rooms in the country by the end of the year. The bigger aspiration, however, is to be present everywhere in India while focusing on transforming the sector on its way.

Hospitality industry, are you listening? Watch out! If nothing else, this new kid on the block definitely poses a huge threat to your conventional ways of running the business. You might want to think about that.