OYO To Launch 13 Self-Operated Hotels Under Premium Brand ‘Palette’ This Year

Hospitality major OYO’s parent, Oravel Stays, is looking to open 13 self-operated hotels under its premium brand ‘Palette’ by the end of this year.

Replicating a model similar to OYO Rooms, it will kick off the plan by opening a Palette hotel in Gujarat’s Morbi, the startup said in a statement on Thursday (March 7).

Oravel Stays said that the new hotel will be strategically located to cater to the needs of business travellers in the country’s ceramic hub. It will feature 48 rooms and cater to the demand for premium accommodation amidst the region’s booming economic growth.

Oravel Stays first piloted hotels under the Palette brand last year by launching 10 properties in cities such as Jaipur, Hyderabad, Digha, Mumbai, Chennai, Manesar and Bengaluru. 

The startup said on Thursday that it will take direct operational control of select Palette hotels in “high-growth and promising locations”.

Once completed by the end of the year, Oravel Stays will count 23 hotels under the new brand.

“We are excited to launch our first self-operated Palette hotel in Gujarat, and what better city to start with than Morbi. With its booming economic scene and growing business opportunities, Morbi is an important market for us…,” said Oravel Stays’ business head Aditya Sharma.

Interestingly, the hospitality unicorn has been experimenting with the brand name Palette for some time now. In 2018, it announced its foray into the upscale hotel category under the name Palette Resorts. 

Eventually, last year, it began experimenting with the new offering via a trial launch in multiple cities, albeit at a lower scale. Apart from this, the Gurugram-based startup also operates sub-brands such as Townhouse Oak, OYO Townhouse, Collection O, and Capital O under its umbrella. 

Founded in 2013 by Ritesh Agarwal, OYO is a hospitality major that is backed by the likes of SoftBank, Airbnb, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Innoven Capital, and Hero Enterprises.

The new offering comes as OYO gears up for a potential public listing by the end of the year. Alongside these developments, OYO has also turned profitable.

Last month, OYO CEO Ritesh Aggarwal said that the startup posted a second consecutive profitable quarter in Q3 FY24, doubling its profit after tax (PAT) to INR 30 Cr.

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