OYO Acquires European Holiday Home Rental Company @Leisure Group

Indian hospitality chain OYO is now strengthening its presence in Europe and has agreed to acquire Amsterdam-based vacation rental company @Leisure Group. The deal is speculated to be worth €360 Mn ($460.49 Mn).

In a media statement, OYO said it will acquire @Leisure from media and technology company Axel Springer.

Post-acquisition, the @Leisure team will also join the OYO team. Tobias Wann, CEO, @Leisure Group, will join OYO’s leadership group as CEO, Vacation Homes, OYO Global. The @Leisure team will also join the OYO team. He will work with Maninder Gulati, OYO’s global chief strategy officer, to turn OYO’s home business into a global  vacation and urban home rentals.

The acquisition will help OYO move a step closer to becoming a global real estate brand. The companies claimed that with this acquisition, OYO’s capabilities of asset management and technology will be combined with the presence, local know-how and category-specific expertise of the @Leisure Group in the sphere of vacation rentals.

@Leisure Group: 300K+ Holiday Homes In Europe

The @Leisure Group offers vacation rentals management, having built deep data-driven capabilities in revenue management, homeowner engagement, and property management services.

The company has four brands—- Belvilla, DanCenter, Traum-Ferienwohnungen and Danland. Belvilla, DanCenter, and Danland offers more than 30K-fully managed holiday homes across 13 countries in Europe. At the same time, its Traum-Ferienwohnungen brand offers a subscription-based home management service to over 85K homes across 50 countries.

OYO emphasised that @Leisure presents OYO with a massive opportunity of over $2 Tn across more than 100 Mn homes covering vacation rentals and urban homes. Last year @Leisure achieved a record EBITDA of more than EUR 24 Mn

Led by Tobias Wann, @Leisure Group has built teams to develop data-driven innovations such as unique pricing tools, which has further aided the delivery of profitable growth to its shareholders.

The company claims that more than 2.8 Mn holidaymakers from over 118 countries book their holiday every year with @Leisure Group.

Ritesh Agarwal, founder and Group CEO, OYO said, “@Leisure Group has proven capabilities in helping develop Europe into a vacation rentals hotspot and we are keen to leverage their competencies towards ensuring beautiful vacation rental and urban homes experience for millions of tourists from every part of the world.”

OYO: The Hospitality Dominance Plans

Ritesh Agarwal-led hospitality group has been marking Indian presence across the world. In terms of metrics, OYO has received commitments of $1Bn last year including $100 Mn from China’s Didi Chuxing.

OYO has recorded global sales run-rate of $1.8 Bn in December, 2018, growing at 4.3X – and its India business was growing at 3X with a sales run-rate of $1.2 Bn annually. The company has operations in 10 countries— India, China, Malaysia, Nepal, UK, UAE, Indonesia, the Philippines, Japan and Saudi Arabia.

Overall, the company claims to control over 13K hotels and 3,000 homes listed on its platform. Here are some of the latest happenings at the company:

•  OYO Hotels and Homes partnered with SoftBank to begin its hotel operations in Japan.OYO has gone live with its ‘OYO LIFE’ services in Tokyo with more than 1,000 residential units on April 1.
• OYO also launched its coworking spaces Powerstation. Powerstation by OYO is a fully managed workspace for medium and large businesses, startups, and freelancers.
• US-based multinational hospitality company Airbnb invested nearly $200 Mn in OYO as part of the Series E round.
• OYO committed $200 Mn (INR 1,400 Cr) towards growing its business in India and South Asia.
• OYO has acquired coworking space provider Innov8, in an all-cash deal worth about INR 220 Cr ($31.84 Mn). According to Inc42 sources, the founders and investors of Innov8 have taken an exit as part of the buyout.

The global customer experience management market size is expected to reach $32.49 Bn by 2025, according to a new report by Grand View Research. The market is expected to progress at a CAGR of 22.9% during the forecast period.

OYO has been betting its budget-hotel model in India and China, its largest markets. However, as its ambitions takes the company to global markets, its pitch has been changing too. As the western countries travel more for experiences, OYO has found a way in with the acquisition of @Leisure Group.