OYO expands to 285 Chinese cities in less than a year

OYO Hotels and Homes, chain of leased and franchised hotels, homes and living spaces, on Thursday said it has expanded to 1,80,000 rooms in China with over 4,000 hotels in more than 285 cities in less than one year. "During our last round of funding, we had committed about USD 600 million to the China market, of which USD 300 million will be used for renovation and infrastructure investments.

This additional investment we believe will help us drive the next wave of growth in China, which is already ahead of India, that too in a much shorter span," OYO Hotels and Homes founder and group CEO Ritesh Agarwal said in a release issued here.

As the company celebrate its first year of operations in China, Agarwal said, OYO Hotels is redefining China's hospitality industry by creating a combination of predictability, standardisation, quality, and affordability. "Buoyed by rapid economic growth, China's burgeoning USD 150 billion hotel industry will continue surging ahead despite being fragmented. It enjoys a strong influx of both domestic and international tourists," Agarwal said.

The company has also launched six OYO Skill Institutes in Shenzhen, Xi'an, Suzhou to fuel the hospitality ecosystem. It has trained 924 people in 76 cities with the help of two regional training managers and eight internal trainers.

OYO Hotels and Homes announced the milestone of expanding its chain to 180,000, franchised and leased rooms, and over 4,000 hotels under franchise, manchise (combination of management contract and franchise) and leased format as part of its chain in China. China was the third overseas market for OYO Hotels, after Malaysia and Nepal.