Budget hotel provider Oyo Rooms on Wednesday officially announced its foray into China’s burgeoning hospitality industry. This is Softbank backed startup’s third foreign venture as it has already forayed into Nepal and Malaysia’s hospitality market. Oyo Rooms said that its current chain of hotels in China compromises of 11,000 exclusive – franchised or manchised rooms – across 26 cities. These cities include well-known names like Hangzhou, Xian, Nanjing, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Shenzhen, Xiamen and Kunming among others.
During past few months several reports had already started surfacing that Oyo Rooms has started a trail operation in China with nearly 400 rooms across 8 hotels. Now that Oyo has finally chose to make it official, it will have to compete with established players like GreenTree Inns, Motel 168, and Home Inns.
Commenting on the latest foreign expansion, Ritesh Agarwal, Founder & CEO of OYO, emphasized about China’s booming tourism industry and how the market is as fragmented as Indian market is. He added that their goal would be to create flawless experience for guests as well as hotel owners and simultaneously create job opportunities for locals in small tier cities.
Back in India, the Gurgaon based startup clearly leads the budget hotel market against all its competitors including Treebo Hotel and Fab Hotels. Operating on a franchise business model, it allows hotel partners to run the operation under company’s brand name.
The company’s high profile backers, who have already poured millions, have certainly helped in emerging as a market leader. Apart from SoftBank, which is the largest investor, the other investors include Greenoak Capital, Sequoia India, Lightspeed India, Hero Enterprise and China Lodging Group.
Oyo Rooms is also seriously mulling over further international expansion, with Indonesia and Dubai being high on its priority list. It is also been rumored that the company is exploring opportunities in the U.S. and U.K markets.