India’s OYO Hotels Plans $300M US Expansion
The fast-growing, “value-chic” hospitality chain already has a presence in Atlanta, Miami and several Texas cities, and expects to enter numerous new markets over the next few years.
OYO Hotels & Homes is planning a major expansion of its already blossoming footprint in the U.S. The India-based hotel startup will invest more than $300 million to increase its presence in the country over the next few years.
Established in 2013, OYO is already one of India’s largest hospitality companies and touts itself as the sixth largest chain of hotels, homes and living spaces in the world. The company’s concept, described as a value-chic hospitality model, centers on providing guests with high-quality and consistency married with “comfort design” at budget prices, a combination made feasible in no small part through the use of proprietary apps for various services and tasks. Today, OYO boasts an 850,000-key hotel portfolio, as well as a collection of 46,000 vacation homes, spanning approximately 800 cities in 74 countries, including China, England, Indonesia, Spain and the U.A.E. The company entered the U.S. earlier in 2019.
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“We started our international journey just about two years back and we are already in the U.S.,” Abhinav Sinha, COO of OYO Hotels & Homes, Global, told Commercial Property Executive. “In less than 3 months of operations in the region, we have already hit the 50 hotels milestone with presence in 10 States and 35 cities in the U.S.” OYO has worked with hotel owners to transform existing non-branded hotels to OYO-branded destinations in Atlanta, Miami and several cities in Texas, including Dallas, Houston and Killeen. Ultimately, the company expects to be in major metros like Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco; where it plans to land next, however, is unclear.
“We are not sharing any targets at the moment but can confirm that we will continue to maintain the momentum of adding a hotel a day and hopefully go up to adding about three to four,” Sinha noted. “Having said that, our focus will be on doing it right as against just doing it fast.”
The allure of the U.S.
The U.S. hotel market may be headed for a brief slowdown, as noted in a recent report by CBRE, but it continues to thrive and remains a magnet for hotel companies around the world. There’s a notable list of other cross-border players with U.S. expansion plans, including London-based Ennismore, which opened in Brooklyn and Portland, Ore., in 2018, and debuts in Chicago and Los Angeles this year. Global hospitality brand Selina, founded in Latin America in 2015, introduced its flagship New York City location in 2018 and announced earlier this year that it will open more than 15 additional hotels in the U.S. by 2020.
