Ritesh Agarwal is an Indian entrepreneur, the founder and CEO of OYO Rooms-the fastest growing Branded network of hotels offline and online. He started his journey at the age of 17 and is considered to be one of the youngest CEOs in India. In 2011, Ritesh moved to Delhi with intentions of starting his own business. Soon, he started travelling extensively across India at the age of 17 and stayed in PG’s, budget hotel due to his stay experiences he felt to launch Oravel stays in 2012.
Oravel to OYO Room
Marketing Strategies of OYO rooms
- Product Strategy of OYO
- Promotion and Advertising of OYO
- Pricing Strategy of OYO
- Place and Distribution Strategy of OYO
Digital Marketing Strategies of OYO
Conclusion
Frequently Asked Questions
Oravel to OYO Room
Oravel Stays Pvt.Ltd was the first startup in the year 2012. Oravel was designed as platform to enable listing and booking of budget and premium accommodations.
It was meant to be destination for short and midterm rentals for bed and breakfast joints, private rooms and serviced apartments.
Oravel was then transformed to OYO rooms in 2013 when Agrawal realized that combination of bed and dinner is not sufficient. He proposed to make it affordable and standardized accommodation.
OYO rooms are India’s largest branded network of budget hotel chain. It currently operates in more than 160 Indian cities and including major metros, regional hubs, leisure destinations and pilgrimage towns with value of nearly 360Cr.
They offer the hotels to their clients and retain a proportion of the profits.
OYO Rooms is a budget hotel aggregator in India. In order to standardize different measures in each room, OYO Rooms partners up with hotels, including free WIFI and breakfast, flat-screen televisions, spotless white bed linens, toiletries with brand name, 6-inch shower head, drinking cup, etc.
Himangi Khare
Marketing Strategies of OYO rooms
As they concentrate on co-branding, OYO rooms operate differently to OTAs. They state that they are working with zero-to-2-star hotels and guest houses, 'standardizing' them and getting them customers through their website and apps. Usually, other hotel aggregators simply connect the customer with the hotel by listing hotels on their website and take commission as their revenue. They would work out a deal with the hotels with minimum order guarantee per month and are able to provide discounted rates and deals on the room rates compared to the rates provided by the hotels directly to a normal guest.
Ashwini
OYO’s market coverage is been swiftly increased because of being listed in websites like MakeMyTrip, clear trip and hotels.com. Their aim is to target small business travelers and budget tourists to eminently swift-cash and that works in favor of OYO because revenues get realized quicker too.
Product Strategies of OYO rooms
The technique of working for Oyo Rooms is simple: they organize the hotels available to customers at various locations and pay a commission fee as their income while booking. Many times, they even book a few rooms per month on demand and also rent these rooms to customers at a cheaper rate, which is what they have taken from the hotel themselves.
- This offer draws customers and makes their travel at a low cost more convenient. Youth are also drawn to their service of giving rooms to unmarried couples without having difficulty. After review of all its facilities, Oyo only takes 5-6 days to enter into a contract with a hotel.
- As a comfortable service, Oyo Rooms has also formed a special team which continues to make sure all the services are offered as mentioned, visiting the hotels over a fixed period. This provides insight into its marketing mix in the product and service bid.
Yash Gupta
Promotion and Advertising Strategy of OYO
- Oyo prefers to fully promote through various social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, etc. With its exclusive offerings and reduced costs, Oyo uses the digital platform to draw new customers.
- Oyo also led many online campaigns including #Aurkyachaiye on various other websites in the social media.
- Many of those promotions have featured artists from Bollywood to make them more appealing.
Pricing Strategy of OYO
- The policy of Oyo Room is to draw customers with a lower price than the hotel base price.
- The primary objective is to provide for an unequalled price that suits the user's budget. The room price varies depending on the location and luxury of the hotel, between Rs. 999 and Rs. 4000.
- Overall Oyo Rooms follow a very sensitive approach, aimed at providing rooms with outstanding facilities at a moderate rate and generating customer loyalty.
Place and Distribution Strategy of OYO
- Oyo rooms works fully online. Where we will be able to access the available hotels at an approximate cost either via an app or through online platforms.
- We will reserve it online with a confirmation and use the facilities on the day you booked.
- Oyo works fully online and relies on their app for their bookings.
Abhishek Gupta
OYO Digital Marketing Strategies
OYO has shifted its business model from hotel aggregator to fastest-growing chain of franchises offering OYO hotels (OYO flagships, townhouses, studio stays collection O, Premium), living spaces (OYO Life), and workspaces (OYO Workspaces).
Marketing Approach Adopted by OYO Rooms
Prices in the real estate sectors are rising day-by-day still OYO has managed to provide the best places to people at an affordable price. The Internet brought the world closer and digital media made it one huge marketing platform. In today’s digital and connected world, it is important to stay ahead in the competition of online hotel booking. OYO made use of a 360-degree marketing strategy. OYO used digital media to reach and attract more customers. They implemented SEO and social media campaigns to attract more and more people.
Search Engine Optimization For OYO Rooms
Search Engine Optimization is done to ensure maximum traffic to the website. OYO used targeted keywords that have the highest searches from their customer. They understood their customer’s needs and intentions and updated their website accordingly. This ensured people searching for hotels are taken to their website.
Social Media Marketing Strategy
People spend a lot of their time on social media. OYO recognized this and used all these platforms efficiently for their marketing. OYO used Facebook to share location-based posts, promotional posts, and posts related to the detailed progress of the organization. These posts helped people to browse destinations to travel, regular promotional posts provided customers with offers and discounts, encouraging them to book OYO.
People tag their location on Instagram posts, OYO reposted these pictures. Along with this strategy they implemented Facebook marketing strategies to Instagram. This strategy leads to engagement and encourages people to tag their location.
OYO often works with influencers who create content around travel. This is either done via posts or re-posts. These posts are about the experience these influencers have during their vacations and not about the stay at OYO. The core idea of OYO's influencer marketing is that you will need a place to stay whenever you go out for a vacation and here comes influencers' experiences.
OYO tweet as well as retweet informative content such as news and companies' CSR activities. This adds credibility to the brand in a not-so-obvious manner.
Conclusion
The main focus of this plan is to provide quality services to the guests. They show on their website or app to customers, all fundamental services, along with the hotel's premium services. It achieves the purpose of providing all visitors with a clean place and basic facilities. Results achieved by OYO are:
- The traction and consumer coverage of OYO has rapidly increased as travel aggregators like Make MyTrip, Simple trip, and com are identified.
- OYO Café, OYO We for women travellers and OYO premium for high end consumers
- Links with essential brands, such as wireless internet service Airtel, ZO-Rooms, Thomas Cook and Air Pegasus.
FAQS of OYO Rooms
1. When did OYO Rooms start?
Oyo Rooms started at 2013 when it transformed from Oravel to OYO.
2. Who are OYO Rooms target audience?
Oyo's target audience is the youth.
3. What are Oyo's selling proposition?
Oyo's unique selling proposition is to provide good hotel facilities with good deal.
4. What are OYO Rooms strategies to bring in customers?
Oyo organize the hotels available to customers at various locations at budget friendly cost.
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