Asia Times | Indian group Oyo buys European hotel business

The application-based Indian home start-up company, Oyo Hotels and Homes, which is trying to increase its presence in Europe, is expected to acquire the Amsterdam based vacation rental company @Leisure Group for 28.85 billion rupees ($ 415 million).

The start-up funded by SoftBank will acquire the @Leisure group from the German media company Axel Springer, and the deal is expected to be finalized next month. It will be one of the largest acquisitions of an Indian unicorn, a private start-up valued at more than a billion dollars, reports Business Standard.

After the acquisition, Oyo will become a global real estate brand while maintaining its strong presence in the hospitality industry. Through its subsidiaries, @Leisure offers more than 30,000 fully-managed holiday homes in 13 European countries.

Its brand Traum-Ferienwohnungen offers a subscription-based house management service with more than 85,000 homes in 50 countries. This represents a total inventory of 300,000 rooms. Europe will be Oyo's largest market, accounting for up to 40% of the supply, the newspaper adds.

Oyo is owned and operated by Oravel Stays and is based in Gurgaon, near New Delhi. Founded in 2013 by Ritesh Agarwal, then barely 19 years old, he became the largest hotel chain in India in terms of the number of rooms.

Agarwal's business strategy was to offer low-budget, independent hoteliers the opportunity to achieve economies of scale by joining its growing franchise, Oyo. For small hoteliers who joined the franchise, this meant an increase of 25 to 70% in the number of occupants and they could offer a better quality of service and a better quality of service at a lower rate.

Today, Oyo is present in more than 500 cities in 10 countries and hosts millions of customers in more than 18,000 hotels and residences in 515,000 rooms.

In March, Oyo ventured into the collaborative workspace business by acquiring Innov8. Its goal is to open more than 35 new collaborative workspaces in major cities over the next year. It has also launched two new collaborating brands – PowerStation and WorkFlo, which will address a variety of startups.