OYO to manage accommodation of 12,000 participants in National Games 2022

SoftBank-backed hospitality technology platform OYO will manage, monitor and coordinate the accommodation of the participants of the 36th National Games 2022 scheduled to be held in Gujarat from September 27-October 10, 2022. 

The Sports Authority of Gujarat has mapped more than 150 OYO-affiliated hotels to accommodate approximately 12,000 participants, including 7,000 sportspersons and 5000 officials, sportspersons and support staff. Indian Olympic Association, Sports Authority of Gujarat and Gujarat State Olympic Association are jointly conducting the games that will see the participation of 28 states and eight union territories of India.

This mapping was based on specific parameters laid down by the authority. These hotels are spread over six host cities in Gujarat, including Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Vadodara, Surat, Rajkot and Bhavnagar. 

OYO has planned for the accommodation in proximity to the competition venue to ensure maximum convenience to the players in their respective sporting events. It will also ensure that the vehicles to ferry players and officials are well maintained and equipped with GPS tracking for smooth operations during the event.

As part of a larger partnership with the National Games 2022 as an Event Management Agency, OYO will also be responsible for catering and managing state coordination. It has set up a control room for helping players and officials with dedicated teams working in three shifts to provide round-the-clock assistance to all the participants.

Speaking on the development, Ankit Gupta, chief executive officer, OYO, said, "Over the years, we have developed the expertise to handle accommodation for large-scale sporting events such as Khelo India. It allowed us to understand the complexities of such events and create a robust 'Good Work Framework' that ensures safety, hygiene and round-the-clock assistance to the participants. While the canvas is bigger for National Games, it is also an opportunity for us to raise the bar and meet the expectations with our unique inventory of hotels, personalised assistance and the quality of our customer support through Yo! Chat – our real-time chat assistance."

Is it IPO time, finally?

Recently, OYO filed the addendum to the draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) submitted last October last year for its initial public offering (IPO), where it hoped to raise $1.1 billion. However with the hospitality and travel sector taking a beating during the pandemic, it deferred this public issue. 

A year later, there is still no official comment on the IPO from the company. However, market sources expect the company to go for it sometime in the coming year. 

This speculation is based on the travel and hospitality sector's recovery over the past few months. This business momentum is reflected in OYO's financial numbers, where the company has narrowed its losses. 

The unicorn's FY22 revenues stood at Rs 4,905 crore, up 18 per cent against Rs 4,157.3 crore the last fiscal. Moreover, it halved its losses for FY22 at Rs 1,892.2 crore from Rs 3,382.5 crore in FY21. 

It reported revenues of Rs 1,504.5 crore in April to June FY 2022-23 quarter, while the losses stood at Rs 353.4 crore. In fact, OYO reported its first quarter (Q1 FY23) of positive EBITDA at Rs 10.57 crore.

As per documents filed with the Security and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), OYO reported a 47 per cent growth in its gross bookings value per hotel from April to June FY 2022-23 at Rs 3.25 lakh as compared to Rs 2.21 lakh for the same period last fiscal. This comes on the backdrop of easing of restrictions, which has given domestic and international travel a huge fillip.

The pandemic and the subsequent shutting down of hotel operations across the country forced OYO to fire thousands of employees. The start-up also stopped its hospitality partners from any assured minimum returns or capital to refurbish their properties during this period. 

Ritesh Agarwal, OYO's founder, also used this downtime to pivot to an 'asset light' business model, offering the company's technology-oriented platform, services and customer support to these partners, which saw the inclusion of homestays. This transition helped the brand cut its losses and become more profitable, fuelling conjecture that the unicorn will finally go for its much-delayed IPO.