OYO set to launch in the UK

 

OYO’s founder, 24-year-old Ritesh Agarwal, launched the business in 2013 and it has rapidly grown to become the biggest hotel company in South Asia.

 

The UK will be OYO’s first European conquest, with the hotel chain already serving cities in India, China, Malaysia, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Nepal, and Japan.

 

The Hindu reported Agarwal as having said:

 

“The UK has been the topmost international travel destination for several years and last year hosted over 19 million tourists from around the world”.

 

“Driven by its booming domestic and international travel budget hospitality needs, the UK presents a multi-billion dollar opportunity for OYO”.

 

According to The Hindu, OYO’s British operations will be led by British entrepreneur Jeremy Sanders, co-founder of restaurant chain Coco di Mama.

 

 

 

OYO will reportedly select hotels from Britain’s wealth of independent hotel operators and, according to Reuters, will offer “redesign, property management and marketing to help them compete”.

 

“By focus on the customer and small asset owners, we tend to out compete some of our more traditional hotel chain rivals,” Agarwal told Reuters in a telephone conversation.

 

OYO will reportedly work over the next year to build a 100-strong team to run the firm’s UK operations.

 

The Hindu said that OYO will launch initially in Manchester, Birmingham, Edinburgh, and Glasgow.