Anumeha Chaturvedi
In 2020, the company has a “razor-sharp” focus on building and strengthening its relationship with its asset partners, where it will prioritise profitable buildings and avoid growth that dilutes margins, the Oyo spokesperson said.
Several existing hotel partners of Oyo expressed concerns over the job cuts at the SoftBank-backed company and said they had received no communication so far about reduction in client-facing roles.
Executives say scale of layoffs ‘far larger’ than expected but Oyo denies any such plan.
Layoffs in Delhi and Jaipur were communicated to the staff on Monday, while in Gurgaon employees were notified on Tuesday.
Till September 2019, over 870 keys had been signed across religious destinations like Amritsar, Dwarka and Haridwar last year, showed data real estate services firm JLL shared with ET. These rooms across hotels are expected to be operational in the next two years.
Owing to India's fascination with gods, travel companies and hotels are ramping up their presence in religious destinations in and outside India.
The company runs about 800 hotels under a self-operated business model, where it makes investments and has leasing arrangements with property owners. It is likely to phase out contracts under the segment that is not Ebitda-positive by March 31. Plans are also afoot to shut down ancillary businesses that do not post an operating profit by July as per a mandate from SoftBank.
The agreements are for a new 170-room Westin hotel in Hyderabad.
Developments such as the slashing of the goods and services tax (GST) rates for luxury hotels brought some cheer to the hospitality sector in 2019, but the ongoing economic headwinds and protests related to the Citizenship Amendment Act are dragging down growth in the near term.
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