Oyo, the international chain of franchised and leased hotels, living spaces and homes, has been aggressively expanding its portfolio within the United Arab Emirates to reach a record number of 4,461 keys in 310 homes and hotels in just 2019 alone.
Oyo Hotels & Homes conducts business in the UAE’s two to four-star hotels sector and has also hosted more than 800 nationalities within its properties in the nation since it launched in October 2018.
The brand is hoping that by 2023, it will have become the world’s biggest hotel chain.
Oyo UAE has been able to grow its footprint in this period with the adoption of a multi-brand strategy and the introduction of the internationally successful Capital O and Oyo Home brands.
The Capital O brand deals with the needs of international business travellers, while Oyo Home is effectively a home management service that provides second homeowners with a stress-free solution.
The country head of Oyo Hotels & Homes UAE, Pranav Mehta, says that the company’s story is only just beginning and there is still a long way to go.
The UAE has been one of the most important Oyo successes in the world, with 12.08 million visitors coming to Dubai in the first nine months of 2019, 56% of which chose to reside in hotels.
Mehta sees this as an encouraging sign for the company, while the Oyo portfolio is also going to be rapidly geared up to host both tourists and business travellers during Expo 2020 next year.
Oyo Hotels & Homes is the biggest chain of franchised and leased hotels, living spaces and homes in South Asia, and the third biggest and fastest growing in the world, as well as being the biggest single hotel brand in the whole of China.
Abdullah Al Hashemi, who owns the Oyo 140 Al Hashemi Hotel, says that Oyo was a big surprise given that it was virtually unknown in the region just a year ago, but he is delighted to have joined the UAE network.
Al Hashemi says that he is also proud to be the first hotel owner in the UAE to have made the decision to join up, a move that has reengineered and transformed the hotel’s customer offerings.
It has also helped with the hotel’s growth trajectory in terms of occupancy levels as well as the bottom line.
A significant number of Oyo guests in 2019 were UAE residents going on a ‘staycation’, accounting for nearly 75% of all bookings.
The remaining 25% belonged to nations such as China, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Australia, Nigeria, Bangladesh, the UK, India, Oman, France, the US, Italy, Pakistan and Mauritius.
The last quarter of 2019 has also attracted millions to the UAE, with Oyo properties open to this extra tourist influx.
Anyone travelling to the UAE for a holiday or for business purposes should take out travel insurance before doing so.
Travel insurance protects travellers from unfortunate incidents that can occur during journeys, such as cancelled flights and lost luggage.
