OYO Expands To Philippines, Begins Partnering With Hotels In Manila

Homegrown hospitality unicorn OYO has entered yet another global destination in its bid to expand its customer base and extend its reach in the international tourism sector.

The Ritesh Agarwal-led company, which has already established a presence in China, Nepal, UK, UAE, Indonesia, and Dubai, has more than 13K hotels and 3,000 homes listed on its platform. The company has now started listing hotels in Philippines, with most of the hotels located in capital Manila.

Inc42 observed that the company has been on a hiring spree since December 2018 as it said that it is “now expanding to new international markets aggressively with a goal to establish a strong global footprint.”

The several job positions open for OYO in the Philippines include accountant, hotel operations manager, property portfolio manager, customer relations manager, and business development manager among others across cities like Davao, Cebu, Western Visayas, Aklan, etc.

(Screenshot of Philippines hotels listed on OYO)

The bookings were also seen open across Booking.com, Hotels.com, Goibibo.com, Agoda, FindHotel, Expedia.co.in etc at various prices.

Earlier this weekend, reports surfaced citing sources that OYO has already onboarded 10 properties and talks are on to add more locations at a quick pace in the Philippines.

At present, OYO has been on a team strengthening spree as it goes far and wide in the international hospitality industry. The startup became a unicorn in 2018 at a valuation of $5 Bn (INR 35,255 Cr) after raising funding of $800Mn (INR 5,640 Cr) funding from SoftBank, $100 Mn (INR 705 Cr) from Grab and another $100 Mn (INR 705 Cr) commitment from a group of investors.

It has also appointed top executives in South Asia, with Aditya Ghosh taking over as CEO of India and South Asia, which didn’t include China, Malaysia and Indonesia. Later, it appointed top executives for China, Malaysia and Europe to strengthen its international footprint.

The Philippines sees 3.7 Mn foreign arrivals from January to June 2018. The country is expected to rake in $663 Mn in revenue in hotels segment amounts in 2019, to show an annual growth rate (CAGR 2019-2023) of 12.5%, resulting in a market volume of $1,060 Bn by 2023.

As OYO looks to change its game abroad, Philippines would be a major addition to its revenues and growth targets.