Oyo Hotels and Homes, a Gurugram-based hospitality chain, has placed Mandar Vaidya as the Chief Executive Offer for Southeast Asia and the Middle East.
The company said that the placement comes as part of the company’s ongoing focus to drive accelerated growth in two of its high potential markets.
“We are thrilled to welcome Mandar to the OYO family as he takes charge of strengthening OYO’s presence in Southeast Asia and the Middle East,” Ritesh Agarwal, founder and CEO at Oyo, 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.
It operates in more than 800 cities in 80 countries, including the US, Europe, UK, India, Malaysia, Middle East, Indonesia, Philippines, and Japan.
Also read: Oyo picks Gaurav Ajmera as chief operating officer for India and South Asia
The newly-appointed Vaidya has over 15 years of experience.
In his new role, he will be responsible for driving business growth for OYO in these two regions, which include markets like Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam, UAE, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the company said.
“Under Mandar’s leadership, we look forward to establishing a strong relationship with asset owners in these regions while staying true to our mission of delivering a chic hospitality experience at hard-to-ignore prices,” Agarwal further added.
In June, OYO said it plans to invest $300 million (approximately Rs 2,085 crore) over the next few years in the US for growth, talent acquisition, competency building, and infrastructure development.
While, other hospitality startups, which are emerging at a fast pace in India includes Yatra, Fabhotels, Treebo, MakeMyTrip, ClearTrip, etc.