Hotel and homestays aggregator OYO has added more than 1250 corporates since March 2022 to its online travel business indicating a revival of corporate business travel in India which has remained stagnant over the last two years.
All large to medium-sized businesses, MNCs, and start-ups initiated work from home after the government announced a full lockdown in early 2020. This was also followed by more restrictions on travel by rail, flight and road in the same year. Following, this most offices remained shut throughout 2021 as both senior and junior level management continued to work from home. However, after March 2022, start-ups and MNCs resumed work from office. Many employees were asked to report to office, driving-up demand for daily commute and inter-city travel.
Traveltech unicorn OYO said in a statement that the recovery is led by small and medium enterprises, traditional business houses & conglomerates, startups, travel management companies as well as film production houses which have emerged as a key customer category for the company in recent times.
The list of top cities searched and booked by corporates include Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Pune and Delhi. Small and medium businesses continue to contribute significantly to the business travel bookings as more and more people from this segment opt for physical interactions; still a key factor for them to expand their business.
OYO’s Business division has serviced over 6600 corporate clients since January 2021. While any customer can easily book a room on OYO through its app or website, customers with corporate tie-ups get curated stay options, strong personalised customer support and integration with the corporate’s accounting system. OYO has also engaged with more than 2800 offline travel agents since January 2021 to facilitate these corporate bookings.
Domestic corporate travel is one of OYO’s important focus areas, but intermittent disruptions since the pandemic had led to subdued or inconsistent booking patterns, the start-up said. OYO’s recent focus on its mid to premium segment brand categories Townhouse Oak, Townhouse, 5 by OYO and 4 by OYO has also provided companies with quality stay choices.
Commenting on the growth in corporate travel, Ankit Gupta, Chief Executive Officer, OYO, India said that the appetite for business travel has returned strongly since the frequent change in travel restrictions has ebbed, making travel planning for business trips more certain and predictable.
“For a lot of our corporate customers, conducting business over virtual meetings was a stop gap and sub-optimal solution. Such customers are leading the business travel revival. Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions are the other key use cases fueling the growth of business travel,” Gupta added.
Segments beyond corporate travel are also on a steady rise for OYO. The company crossed the 8 lakh bookings milestone in India during the Easter week. It has seen 8 continuous weeks of rising bookings since then. OYO Europe Homes has also seen a faster recovery from the Omicron impact, the company added.
OYO is also one of the tech start-up candidates looking to go public after the market regulator SEBI eased listing norms in 2019. In October 2021, OYO’s parent company Oravel Stays Ltd had filed a draft red herring prospectus with capital markets regulator SEBI to launch Rs 8,430-crore IPO. However, recent news reports indicate the company’s public listing plans have been shelved due to the downturn in global tech stocks.
