Self-serve platforms have been in vogue in some parts of Europe and the US. It works well for travellers on the go, who need a basic set of facilities and a night’s stay before addressing their professional engagements. It has been attractive, particularly, in the business segment travel; much of the managerial level corporate segment prefers mid-segment accommodation to keep their travel budgets in check. It is a segment that has steadily been gaining traction in India, but much of it has been confined to mid-segment category. 
In a one-off and a continuation in its effort to further expand its consumer base in the business segment, OYO, nation’s largest branded network of hotels, has recently announced the availability of its self-serve platform for business travellers on its mobile app. Designed to service clientele on the go, the platform been termed “OYO for Business”. The online platform offers rooms to cater to the needs of corporate travellers. To ensure optimum facilities at an extremely competitive rate, rooms include air-conditioning, flat-screen television, free Wi-Fi, complimentary breakfast and round-the-clock customer-care support. Ensuring vast presence, over 6000 hotels are offering these rooms, spread across 180 cities across India.
The company, predictably, has listed Mumbai, Bengaluru, Gurgaon, Hyderabad and Chennai as top five cities on the app.
Reacting on the development, Ritesh Agarwal, Founder & CEO – OYO, said, “OYO has ushered in an era of reliable customer experience in the highly fragmented and unpredictable category of unbranded hotels in India. We are thrilled to extend our brand promise to business travellers across India’s premier corporates, SMEs and start-ups,” he said. He further added that he was confident that business travel in India would become more rewarding and hassle-free once booked through “OYO for Business.”
Kavikrut, Chief Growth Officer – OYO added, “With strong growth outlook in the corporate travel sector, we expect this service to scale rapidly. Businesses are looking for a hassle-free experience at great value. So there is a wonderful synergy with our brand promise. We will offer our partners carefully curated rooms, special offers and incentives to make this an enriching association.”
This development has come from the back of a six-month period of testing with 1600 companies, including large corporates, SMEs and start-ups. Using this platform, companies witnessed average savings of 30% on their travel-related expenses.
The platform has catered to large scale booking needs by offering ease of creating bulk bookings via the web and mobile app along with the added convenience of travel-expense management. A number of A-listed companies had enrolled in the pilot phase which include corporates such as Citibank, Sony, E-value serve, Ranbaxy, Capgemini and L&T and start-ups including Zomato and Snapdeal. Since launch, the group has able to tap more than 4500 corporate consumers for business with recurring demand from 1500 of them.
