Moneta (Sep-October) Sep-Oct | Page 10

ISSUE NO: 17 budget hotel chain, and the company as around 6500 hotels in 200+ cities as of October 2016. It has also launched in Malaysia. OYO Rooms reaches out to prospective hotels to partner with them. Through OYO Room web pagewww.oyorooms.com/become-anOYO also a hotel owner can reach out to OYO. Then the OYO team contacts the hotel and audits the hotel to understand the changes needed to standardize the property as per OYO standards and shares other details of the partnership agreement. A traveller can book a room online at www.oyorooms.com and can choose to opt for at the hotel or online payment pay. The site can also be accessed from mobile devices as well as desktop or laptops. OYO Rooms also has mobile apps - OYO for iOS platforms and OYO for Android, that allow users to book and manage their bookings. OYO also runs a 24 X 7 support helpline and booking. Softbank in February 2016 made public that budget hotel aggregator 8|Page SEP-OCT OYO Rooms, where it's a major shareholder, acquired its smaller rival, Zo Rooms backed by Tiger Global. The deal is structured as an asset sale, will give founders and investors of Zo’s Room including Tiger Global a combined 7% stake in India's largest budget hotel aggregator. OYO raised a fresh round of funding worth Rs 413 crore in July 2016 through a proposed rights issue of shares to existing shareholders, according to documents filed with the Registrar of Companies. According to the filing, the post money valuation of the start-up was pegged at Rs 3129 crore or about $ 460 million. Travel port, travel commerce platform headquartered in UK has signed an agreement with OYO Rooms whereby 6,000 hotel properties offered by OYO will be available to the latter's connected travel agencies. So far OYO Rooms have done quite a phenomenal task in their journey. OYO Rooms remains as an example for Indian Start-ups for their meticulous operation and successful execution. - By Vaishali Ramprasad