OYO Makes Its First Bet In IoT With Acquisition Of AblePlus

In a huge bet on deep technologies, hospitality company OYO has acquired Mumbai-based IoT (Internet of Things) technology company AblePlus.

The acquisition comes as an attempt to enhance OYO’s technology portfolio. With this partnership, OYO aims to create a sustainable ecosystem powered by technology and artificial intelligence for managing hotels and assets.

Anil Goel, chief technology officer, OYO, said, “We are delighted to announce our acquisition of AblePlus towards pioneering the application of IoT in Indian and global hospitality segment and creating a global impact. Both Akash and Bonish (co-founders of AblePlus) are extremely talented individuals and we are excited to welcome them onboard. Through partnerships like this, we envision a smooth road ahead for building the world’s largest technology-enabled hospitality brand.”

With the introduction of IoT into the basic precincts of hotel management, OYO aims to enhance customer and partner experiences by roping in the best of technology capabilities that are changing how India sees hospitality today.

The company claims that with the implementation of IoT-enabled operations, customers will be able to experience highlights such as self-check-ins supported by the Digital Arrival and Departure Register, Self KYC with Aadhar and IoT server managed smart locks. With this, it plans to achieve improved operational efficiency, thus creating a superior stakeholder experience.

With the technology-enabled operations, the company aims to ensure better tracking of assets across properties and reduction in wastage of electricity further minimizing the company’s carbon footprint.

OYO’s Future Bets On New-Age Technologies

Further, with an eye on the future, OYO is also aiming to introduce voice-based assistance in rooms enabling automation of controlling appliances, lights among other services. At the same time, the company also plans to implement a comprehensive guest entertainment programme that will include fitness, gaming and augmented experiences.

Going forward, OYO also plans to launch several other integrated technology solutions including enhancing its OYO Asset Management offering so that it is easy to partner with and become, an OYO.

After introducing initiative of Digital Arrival and Departure Register, which has been adopted by the state governments of Haryana and Rajasthan, the company also uses of machine learning (ML) based algorithms to personalise the user journey.

The company explains that with each repeat usage of the company’s offerings, the platform acquires intelligence which helps make it better accustomed to the user’s perceived needs.

Recently, the company has also started experiments with gamification, where users are asked simple quizzes aimed at increasing the overall awareness of the user in terms of new hotels and destinations on OYO that they can explore.

At the same time, the company recently announced its plans to venture into the wedding industry with Auto Party, a separate platform that provides banqueting and wedding planning services to its customers.

This comes at a time when the company recently announced its foray into the hospitality industry of China officially.