Hotel company Oyo to introduce ‘set of brands'

Fast-growing hotel company Oyo will build up a "compelling set of brands", according to its UK boss.

This is according to Oyo's head of UK Jeremy Sanders (pictured), who co-founded the Coco di Mama restaurant chain.

The India-based hotel group plans to expand its brand portfolio past its Oyo and Oyo Townhouse brands.

"We will develop the brand hierarchy over time," said Sanders, speaking to The Caterer. "We're very committed to building out a sophisticated and compelling set of brands that match the hotels that we partner with and the direction we want to go in, but we're early days yet."

Although he could not confirm how many brands the group would launch, he said he "suspects" the group's next brand will be mid-market, which has been Oyo's main focus so far, although he added: "nothing's stopping us in the future from moving up the stars".

Orestone Manor in Torquay, Devon, which is rated four gold stars in the AA's restaurant with rooms category, has already joined the group.

Since launching in the UK in October 2018, Oyo has recruited 100 franchised and leased hotels across the UK, which was the group's first market outside of Asia. At the time it announced it had £40m from investors earmarked for its UK expansion plans, as it invests in upgrading and branding its member properties.

On reports that the group is targeting 300 properties in the UK, Sanders said: "It's a great ambition and, provided we can add value and we have the capabilities to do it, I'll be working with the team to hit that and go further."

Sanders added that, as Oyo expands in the UK, a smaller percentage of its properties would be in London. "Over time it will come down, you'll see that London will fall to roughly 35% of the business, which gives a great sense of our commitment to regional expansion," he said.

Founded by chief executive Ritesh Agarwal in 2013, Oyo is India's largest hospitality company with regards to number of rooms. The company is backed by investors including AirBnB, SoftBank Vision Fund, Greenoak Capital, Sequoia India, Lightspeed India, Hero Enterprise and China Lodging Group.

OYO Hotels & Homes to hit 50 UK properties this month >>

Indian hotel chain Oyo eyes UK expansion >>

Airbnb takes stake in Oyo >>