HERALD: How is Oyo different from others in the hotel industry?
ADITYA GHOSH: We are a full stack hotel company and we are not an online travel agency or a market place. We will go and invest in hotels, help construct the hotels and would certainly help transform the hotels. We have eight different brands which serve to different segments of our customers, according to their budget. We also own our customers experience and it is very different from an online travel agency.
Today what we have been able to do in the hospitality industry is to get a safe and secure, clean and hygienic with consistent standard rooms one should not have to pay more than what it is worth. We should be able to give that to you in a convenient location at a very affordable tariff. This is a very simple promise, and we adhere to it.
HERALD: How has the Goa market been for you?
AG: We now have over 400 hotels in Goa and we are approximately doubling every year and this year has been exceptional. We are currently having 9000 keys and we hope to end this year anywhere between 10,000-11,000 keys. Next year we are planning to double that. Only in the month of October this year we added 1000 keys. We are one of the few companies which have such a large and significant presence in Goa even in terms of an office. Our office at Patto, Panjim has our revenue management office, sales, operations, technology, structural engineers etc.
Between direct and indirect, we have about 5000 employees in Goa itself. All over India we have approximately 70,000 and globally we have 300,000 direct and indirect employees. It changes event month as we are growing rapidly and we are the largest branded hotel chain in India, South-Asia, China, Indonesia etc.
HERALD: Why has your business model been so successful?
AG:It all comes down for the customers being able to choose us over and over again. Why is it happening? We believe that when we put the customer at the center and build a business around it, then you begin to expand at a rapid pace. General Electric, Maruti Suzuki, Bajaj Auto, Hero Cycles, Mahindras etc are examples we have in front of us. All have just stuck to the delivering their products according to the needs of the customers.
In Goa the highest concentration of hotels is around the beaches and this gave us an opportunity to see that there is also at hinterlands, which have a paucity of affordable hotel rooms. Goa is mainly focussed around the ‘seasons’. We are trying to come up with a product which will appeal to people round the year. Our high-end products and the product launched especially for millennial are doing very well in Goa while challenging the traditional view that Goa is only a holiday destination.
HERALD:So where and what are your challenges and with whom?
AG: AirBnB is one of our investors also and is a market place. We also sell through AirBnB, MakemyTrip, Booking.com etc and they are our travel partners. I think there are probably two competitors. Those who are in hospitality industry for long and have their traditional hotels are surely one of our competitors. We really are focussed on how we were yesterday and how can we go through with a continuous improvement programmes so that we take on our own challenges and get better. In fact, it will be very complaisant of us to start comparing with those who are not in the same business model as we are in. We have our own very robust review systems with whatever feedbacks we get from our customers, which keeps us going. Coffee conversations with our own line of employees and asset owners who we are partnering with and also our customers, are also very important for us to understand the ground reality.
HERALD: How much in assets do you own?
AG: In our case and because we are hotel company, we own some of the assets also. In other cases it is match-making which is done by a company with the hotel owners and the consumers. In our case we run our hotels like any other hotel chain. As we have gained confidence we have started investing in our own properties also. For a while we have been investing capital expenditure in many properties, either to help build or refurbish it. We are also giving business advances to building owners for them to be able to build and improve upon their properties. The third most significant thing is that we now started to invest in hotel asset itself and we will be announcing the brand name of such properties very shortly. In Las Vegas we have invested in a 700 room property and so have we done in Ahmadabad.
HERALD: How do you see the dip in tourist footfalls in Goa?
AG:The slippage is only in the high-end tourists if there is any and I do not have the figures with me. We on the other hand see our occupancy in Oyo this month (November) is way better than what it was last month. The reason could be because we offer our customers affordable, clean, hygienic better located products than those who have been in this business for quite some time. Many of the consumers do not require a grand lobby or five dining restaurants, or two swimming pools etc, which may add to their overall tariff cost. No one is willing to pay for extra fat.
