OYO Hotels & Homes has announced that it has now become the largest single hotel brand in China and continues to maintain the second spot at the hotel group level in the country.

In a short span of 1.6 years, OYO has expanded its presence to 337+ cities and 500,000 rooms, surpassing the scale of traditional and established hotel chain brands in the country, such as Home Inn, Hanting and others. The company has allocated approximately USD 100 million out of the USD 600 million earlier committed to being invested in China, towards quality & system improvements and customer service.

Commenting on the development, Sam Shih, COO, OYO China said, “OYO Jiudian (Hotels) has been growing at a rapid pace and we are humbled by the support that we are receiving from thousands of employees, asset owners and the 300,000+ travellers who are resting their heads on OYO Jiudian pillows each night. This phenomenal growth is also the result of concerted efforts of our business partners, and leaders. As we move into the next phase of growth at OYO Jiudian, our focus will continue to be on hiring and retaining top talent while at the same time optimising operational efficiency across all departments. OYOpreneurs, as our employees are fondly called, embody distributed leadership by taking ownership and accountability for their projects and daily activities while maintaining the highest standards of customer experience, quality and compliance.”

Commitment to quality

The company has allocated approximately USD 100 million out of the USD 600 million earlier committed to being invested in China, towards quality & system improvements and customer service.

OYO has revolutionized the fragmented and legacy-driven budget hospitality space in China by building a brand, optimizing costs, hiring talent, as well as leveraging brand channels. With second-tier cities at its core, OYO Hotels’ chain extends deep into China’s tier-2 to tier-6 cities and has created both direct and indirect employment opportunities across the country. It has expanded its roots deep in lower-tier cities to offer branded living experiences for customers pursuing personalization and quality, while at the same time driving consumption and upgraded tourism related accommodations, similar to Pinduoduo and other tier-2 focused companies in the middle kingdom.

“Consistent product and service delivery”

Establishing her key priorities for the business, Shella Ng, General Counsel, OYO China, commented, “For the year 2019, we have recognized key priorities, including a deep and wide expansion of OYO’s chain while ensuring a consistent product and service delivery, and high-quality customer experience. To that end, we are continuously working towards establishing the highest standards of quality, compliance, and integrity.”

To ensure asset owners have improved visibility on potential customers from around the world, OYO Hotels is also exploring ways to collaborate with online travel agents (OTAs) such as Fliggy, Ctrip and others, along with other consumer traffic-building platforms. The company recently announced a strategic partnership with Alipay and later launched the OYO mini program in Alipay. The two companies aim to cooperate in areas like membership, traffic exchange, scenario integration, finance services, smart payment, credit life, and hotel upgrades.  These partnerships have further fuelled OYO’s success in China.

Hiring talent

The company has hired over 10,000 people and created jobs for over 200,000 Chinese hospitality enthusiasts.

Rumour has it that OYO laid off or plans to lay off 1,000 employees in China. Chinese media outlets Pandaily and Yicai Global reported about the layoffs from OYO’s Chinese development team. However, the company quickly denied and confirmed that it is hiring more people to man its more than 500,000 rooms.