OYO Plans To Bring On Board 300 Hill Station Hotels By August
The hospitality and travel-tech company, OYO announced on Monday, that it will onboard and add 300 hill station hotels to its portfolio by August 2023 to capitalize on the summer vacation rush. In north india, these new hotels will be in places such as Manali, Mussoorie, Nainital, Srinagar, Shimla, Dalhousie, and Haridwar while in the South, it will be Ooty, Munnar, and Kodaikanal, the company said in a statement.
Gangtok, Darjeeling, and Shillong in the East; and Lonavala and Mahabaleshwar in the West will also see new OYO hotels, it added. The company is witnessing a surge in demand for hill stations and the trend will continue throughout the next three months, an OYO spokesperson said.
"With our expansion across key hill stations in India, we aim to provide a wide range of options for travellers, while also contributing to the growth of domestic tourism," the spokesperson added. In addition to expansion across hill destinations, OYO is also aiming to add 1,800 new hotels to its portfolio in 2023 as part of its ongoing bid for premiumisation.
Before this, OYO estimates its revenue in FY23 to be more than Rs. 5,700 crore, up 19 percent from Rs. 4,780 crore it had recorded in FY22, according to its Founder & Group CEO Ritesh Agarwal. In a town hall meeting, Agarwal told employees of the firm that Oyo is aspiring to reach adjusted EBITDA of nearly Rs. 800 crore in the next financial year.
In January, Oyo was asked by Sebi to refile the draft IPO (Initial Public Offering) papers with certain updates. In September 2021, Oyo had filed preliminary documents with Sebi for a Rs. 8,430 crore-IPO. The IPO was delayed due to the then volatile market conditions making the company prepare to settle for a lower valuation at around $7-8 billion (roughly Rs. 57,700 crore to Rs. 65,900 crore) instead of the $11 billion (roughly Rs. 90,600 crore) it was targeting initially.
