ET BureauNEW DELHI: OYO Hotels & Homes is scaling up its executive stay brand SilverKey to 19 cities across the country, as it begins to double down on the corporate travel segment, the SoftBank-backed company announced on Tuesday.
In an official statement, the Gurgaon-headquartered hospitality chain said it plans to expand the presence of the brand, which it launched in April last year, to 400 SilverKey hotels, with over 8,000 rooms by the end of the current calendar year.
OYO currently operates 55 SilverKey hotels with over 1,600 rooms under management, according to the statement released by the company, which also stated that existing hotels under the brand will also undergo an upgrade with additional facilities being added to them.
“SilverKey helps address the need for an affordable and functional stay option for India Inc by being conveniently located in and around key business hubs. Today, with the commitment to expand our SilverKey footprint to 19 cities, we are decisively betting big on corporate travel,” Aditya Ghosh, chief executive - India and South Asia for OYO, said in the press release.
SilverKey is currently operational across 10 cities in India, including in Gurgaon, Delhi, Noida, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Coimbatore, Trivandrum and Kolkata. It caters primarily to corporate travellers, an increasingly important segment for both, hospitality chains and online travel operators.
“I think we are all set to ensure that our growing portfolio of corporate customers get the best experience and prices like always - but just a little better than yesterday,” Ghosh said.
Others, such as Treebo, which also competes with OYO, had earlier launched Treebo for Business, a technology stack that allows users to check real-time room availability, make instant bookings, avail the customised rates offered to them, make online cancellations and access booking history and preferred choices of employees.
Additionally, Nasdaq-listed Yatra, India’s second-largest online travel operator, has bet big on the corporate travel segment, having acquired Air Travel Bureau for an estimated $27.5 million in 2017. Earlier this year, it was reported to have also acquired the corporate travel business of Chennai-based offline travel services provider PL Worldways for an undisclosed sum.
For OYO, the decision to expand SilverKey all comes soon after the company said it had committed Rs 1,400 crore towards its core Indian market, having raised an estimated $1-1.2 billion in equity financing thus far in its Series E round of funding.
According to data shared by the company, OYO is currently present in over 259 cities, has over 8,700 hotels and homes, which includes over 173,000 rooms. Its portfolio now includes six brands - OYO Rooms, Townhouse, SilverKey, Collection O, Capital O and Palette Resorts.
In an official statement, the Gurgaon-headquartered hospitality chain said it plans to expand the presence of the brand, which it launched in April last year, to 400 SilverKey hotels, with over 8,000 rooms by the end of the current calendar year.
OYO currently operates 55 SilverKey hotels with over 1,600 rooms under management, according to the statement released by the company, which also stated that existing hotels under the brand will also undergo an upgrade with additional facilities being added to them.
“SilverKey helps address the need for an affordable and functional stay option for India Inc by being conveniently located in and around key business hubs. Today, with the commitment to expand our SilverKey footprint to 19 cities, we are decisively betting big on corporate travel,” Aditya Ghosh, chief executive - India and South Asia for OYO, said in the press release.
SilverKey is currently operational across 10 cities in India, including in Gurgaon, Delhi, Noida, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Coimbatore, Trivandrum and Kolkata. It caters primarily to corporate travellers, an increasingly important segment for both, hospitality chains and online travel operators.
“I think we are all set to ensure that our growing portfolio of corporate customers get the best experience and prices like always - but just a little better than yesterday,” Ghosh said.
Others, such as Treebo, which also competes with OYO, had earlier launched Treebo for Business, a technology stack that allows users to check real-time room availability, make instant bookings, avail the customised rates offered to them, make online cancellations and access booking history and preferred choices of employees.
Additionally, Nasdaq-listed Yatra, India’s second-largest online travel operator, has bet big on the corporate travel segment, having acquired Air Travel Bureau for an estimated $27.5 million in 2017. Earlier this year, it was reported to have also acquired the corporate travel business of Chennai-based offline travel services provider PL Worldways for an undisclosed sum.
For OYO, the decision to expand SilverKey all comes soon after the company said it had committed Rs 1,400 crore towards its core Indian market, having raised an estimated $1-1.2 billion in equity financing thus far in its Series E round of funding.
According to data shared by the company, OYO is currently present in over 259 cities, has over 8,700 hotels and homes, which includes over 173,000 rooms. Its portfolio now includes six brands - OYO Rooms, Townhouse, SilverKey, Collection O, Capital O and Palette Resorts.
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