Global hotel chain OYO continues its aggressively on its expansion plans, enters into long-term housing rental segment.
Gurugram-based OYO has ramped up its expansion plans, since its raised ₹7,285 crores from Softbank, last month, valuing the startup at $5 billion.
OYO’s new offering will be called “Oyo Living”, catering to the growing need for long-term housing for young professionals. The hospitality startup is working with independent owners and large builders to lease out properties for its new offering.
A part of OYO’s fresh funding will go towards its new business. Oyo Living is set to be rolled out first in Noida, Gurugram, Bengaluru, and Pune, before expanding to other cities.
Kavikrut, Chief Growth Officer at Oyo Rooms, will be heading the five-year-old startup’s new business division.
Talking about the new business, Kavikrut, said, “This is a big opportunity for us and we have done several pilots over the last six months that have shown good opportunity in this space. We are targeting young professionals who are typically in their first or second job and migrating into new cities. While we are leveraging Oyo’s existing expertise from the hospitality business, about 85 people are working solely on the housing rental business.”
The division has on-boarded about 36 properties with 2,000 beds, and the plan is to scale it to about 50,000 beds in the next one year across the top 10 metros.
As OYO targets young professionals with new jobs, it will be looking to tackle the issues like steep deposits, advance rents, and maintenance of properties in coordination with landlords, and not restrict itself to discovery and booking services. This will ensure a seamless experience to its customers.
Other players competing with OYO in the housing rental space include NestAway, ZiffyHomes, NoBroker, Stanza Living, and Zolo, among many others.
In less than 12 months, OYO has expanded its footprints across countries like China, Malaysia, Nepal, UK, UAE, and Indonesia.
Earlier this month, it was also reported that OYO is set to enter Japan’s hospitality industry, with its pilots operational in Tokyo, ahead of Summer Olympic Games 2020.