OYO Home debuts in Dubai; targets 200 homes

OYO Hotels & Homes has announced the launch of OYO Home in Dubai. Starting with 40 homes in the city, the hospitality chain plans to ramp up the footprint to 200 homes in the next six months.

It also plans to introduce the category to other emirates in the UAE.

Kavikrut, Chief Growth Officer, OYO Hotels & Homes, said, “At OYO, we are focused on solving the problem of lack of quality and supply-demand imbalance in the hospitality sector. Since launching OYO Home in India, we’ve seen exponential growth and currently operate over 3,000 homes in the country."

OYO has introduced unique accommodation experiences to travellers ranging from historic villas dating back to the 1900s to theme-based apartments.

"UAE’s top holiday destinations have a sizeable number of homes that are locked and unutilised. Homeowners are unable to put these assets to personal or commercial use due to lack of time and-or expertise in homestay-management. We saw this as an untapped opportunity where our business has existing synergies - we have people resources all across the UAE, strong capabilities when it comes to property onboarding, transformation and upgradations, including redesign to suit the needs of young global travellers," he added.

OYO Home is a Home Management service that utilises the chain’s existing on-ground operations, hospitality technology, housekeeping skills, revenue management algorithms and distribution prowess to deliver a hassle-free solution to second home-owners.

It intends to focus on locked and unused homes across top holiday destinations in the country. OYO currently operates over 3,000 fully-managed residential accommodation in India dotted across 25 cities, including Goa, Shimla, Puducherry, Coorg, Manali, Dehradun, Wayanad, Coorg, Udaipur and Jaipur, among others.

Kavikrut added, “There is a significant market opportunity especially as people have invested in second homes in top holiday destinations across the UAE. GCC and international travellers today are open to choosing the comforts of a fully managed holiday home, for short stays."

Last year, OYO Hotels & Homes welcomed over 1 lakh guests from 75 countries across 16 properties in the UAE, since its launch in October 2018. With this lease and full inventory control model, OYO currently manages 1,300 rooms within these properties in Dubai, Sharjah, Ras Al-Khaimah and Fujairah, and is set to touch 12,000 rooms by 2020, the company said.