- OYO records over 150% Y-O-Y growth in travel agent network in FY23
- OYO worked with over 5300 travel agencies in FY 2022-23 compared to approximately 2000 travel agencies in FY 21-22
- OYO’s continuous efforts towards improving overall booking experience and competitive rates for its accommodation and a transparent commission payout process have accelerated the growth
- The growth can be attributed to travel resurgence in India over the last few years widening business opportunities for travel agencies
- OYO has a large network of hotels and homestays across 400 cities in India
OYO has recorded over 150% growth in travel agency enrollment in the financial 2022-23. A total of over 5300 travel agencies across India worked with OYO in the financial year ended on March 31, 2023, compared to approximately 2100 travel agencies in FY 21-22. The growth is equally distributed across all regions in India and supported by travel agencies of different sizes and scales.
Improvement in overall booking experience
OYO’s continuous efforts towards improving overall booking experience has acted as a catalyst to accelerate the growth. Travel agencies get access to a wide range of hotels at most attractive prices through a dedicated relationship manager. They can also book individual and group tours conveniently through a super-agent portal. In addition to this, OYO also ensures a smooth commission payout process. Travel agencies also benefit from strong and personalised partner support as well as integration with their accounting system that ensures a hassle-free input tax process.
A strong global presence
OYO has a large network of over 17,000 hotels globally. A large portion of these hotels are in India spread across 400 cities in India, making it easier for travel agents to provide wide option of value for money stays to include in tour packages. Travel agencies are able to offer a broader range of lodging options to all types of travelers, such as business travelers, religious travelers, students, leisure travelers, and others, significantly increasing revenue opportunities.
OYO’s booking data reveals that travel agents prefer the mid-premium brands from its portfolio such as Townhouse Oak, Townhouse, Collection O and Capital O. This is one of the factors contributing to OYO Hotel’s recent announcement of doubling its premium hotel count in India.
Key advantages
Guests choose OYO’s platform for many reasons, including accessibility to OYO’s hotels at competitive prices, quality accommodation,ease of use of its app, personalization, and flexibility of the OYO platform. Customers can also resolve their queries quickly with OYO’s 24*7 chatbot – Yo! Chat.
Guests can do hotel bookings through a simple three click booking process on OYO Hotels app. OYO Rooms has around 50% same city bookings through its ‘hotels near me’ feature. Outstation bookings score high for Goa hotels among beach destinations, Jaipur hotels and Udaipur hotels for heritage tourism. Same city bookings are high for hotels in Delhi and hotels in Chandigarh in North India, hotels in Mumbai in West and hotels in Bangalore followed by hotels in Hyderabad in South India.
Speaking on the development, Varun Jain, Chief Operating Officer-India Business, OYO said “Collaborating with travel agencies is not just about expanding our reach, it’s about cultivating a partnership that fosters mutual growth. They play a crucial role in our business growth by distributing our hotel inventory more efficiently to a larger pool of guests, understanding market trends, customer preferences, helping us improve our offerings and services. We also ensure continuous revenue growth for our travel agency partners with innovative offers and schemes”.
The growth in travel agency enrollments can also be attributed to travel resurgence in India over the last few years which widened the business opportunities for them. As per the Indian Tourism Statistics Report released in September 2022, India witnessed 677.63 million domestic tourist visits in 2021 recording an 11.05 percent increase from 2020. In 2021-22, the total number of domestic visitors recorded a 98 percent year-on-year growth. The Economic Survey released in January this year revealed that the hotel occupancy rate in November 2022 was around 68 per cent to 70 per cent, reaching the average pre-pandemic level of 2019-20.
