OYO continues to gain high market share despite focus against traditional players: Kalagato Report

Hotel aggregator OYO continues to power its growth momentum emerging as a successfully differentiated offering in the hotels-booking space.

According to a recently released report by Kalagato, India's leading market and competitive intelligence provider, OYO has carved out a significant mobile presence despite its niche focus. Its presence is in fact much larger than many pure play OTAs that serve a much wider purpose.

Further, it shows impressive incremental traction in terms of transaction volume when compared to other OTAs with a more varied set of use-cases and offerings.

OYO also demonstrates high NPS (Net Promoter Score), a key indicator of customer satisfaction, compared to many older and established service brands.

Kalagato also put together a comparison of hotel booking distribution, which it suggests tells a stunning story. OYO is slowly eating into the hotel market and taking a larger share of booking volumes with each passing month.

"The findings of the Kalagato report echo the response we have received from millions of customers who appreciate the work we are doing by bringing in quality living-spaces to budget and mid-market categories in Indian hospitality. It is also a testament to our customer-centric approach - offering a reliable, hassle-free and value-based experience lies at the heart of OYO's philosophy," said founder and CEO OYO, Ritesh Agarwal.

"We will continue to deliver more value to our guests while innovating and upgrading the quality of services using a combination of technology and skill-development," added Agarwal.

"We are also very heartened to see that in the 12-month review period of the report, we continue to gain market-share with growing repeats and the usage pattern of an OYO customer has been incredibly consistent. This stickiness and repeat is in contrast to the more turbulent booking frequency witnessed by other players which can be attributed to discounting and marketing cycles. In fact for most part of this past year OYO has not participated in high-volume high-frequency marketing and instead invested on customer service to ensure convenience and affordability. This is reflected in our high NPS scores compared to more established brands," added Ritesh.

The Kalagato report showcases that OYO has successfully expanded its niche in the hospitality segment. 95 percent+ of OYO's demand comes through its own channels. The customer repeat rate for OYO is 45 percent, which is higher than industry average. This can be attributed to a seamless product experience, efficient marketing and solid distribution capabilities.

The Indian travel market still consists of train travelers (87 percent), followed by bus travelers, and their booking patterns resemble hotel booking patterns most closely. Being a value hotel chain, the report posits that OYO is a budget hotel chain "perfectly poised to serve this customer" and that "the hotel segment which has long been the cash cow for the OTA's is coming under threat."

Through innovation in technology, training and strong brand recall, OYO has established its leadership in the hospitality segment today with 8,500-plus hotels in more than 230 cities within its network.