OYO Hotels and Homes, a hospitality firm, based out of Gurugram, threatened to take legal action against small vested interest group for trying to create problem in its business, amid reports that many of its partners are at dispute with it, said a report by PTI, accessed by yourstory.
The company, which on Wednesday got a winning hand with the Delhi High Court restraining various hoteliers welfare associations from issuing any notices or shunning and banning OYO, also said it will invest ₹200 crore to expand its business in Haryana.
“Most of the boycott claims are being made by small vested interest groups with no property franchised with or leased to OYO Hotels,” Ayush Mathur, chief supply officer at Oyo Hotels and Homes said.
The SoftBank backed hospitality chain Oyo was started by Ritesh Agarwal in 2013. The startup was started from a single hotel to over 8500 hotels at present. It is the fastest growing network of hotels, offline and online and the current evaluation is over $400 million.
At present, the company operates more than 23,000 properties with more than 850,000 rooms, making it the world’s sixth-largest lodging provider by its own measure.
Some such individuals have also been threatening to cancel agreements and not accept online bookings, which will be a default of the contractual arrangements, and will lead to legal liabilities on these individuals, he added.
The company “cannot and will not let anyone hamper the customer experience. We will take strict legal action”, Mathur further said.
He further added that OYO will continue to engage with its franchisee hotel owners on a one-to-one basis to resolve issues and part ways amicably in case a mutually acceptable solution is not reached.
On the other hand, Aditya Ghosh, Chief Executive Officer (India & South Asia), OYO Hotels & Homes, said: “Over half of the 1 lakh jobs created by us were in smaller towns and cities of India. As we grow at scale, so does the possibility of an entrepreneurial ecosystem of direct and indirect employment. We, therefore, aim to quadruple economic opportunities in Haryana by 2020.”
While, other hospitality startups, which are emerging at a fast pace in India includes Yatra, Fabhotels, Treebo, MakeMyTrip, ClearTrip, etc.