Delhi has emerged as the most-booked business city, closely followed by Hyderabad
After two consecutive years of subdued sentiments due to the pandemic, business travel in India is making a strong comeback. Hospitality major OYO has posted an 83 per cent year-on-year (YoY) jump in bookings in business cities between April and November this year.
Delhi has emerged as the most-booked business city, closely followed by Hyderabad. Other top cities in terms of bookings included Bengaluru, Kolkata and Chennai, according to the company’s Business Travel Trends Report 2022.
Hyderabad recorded 100 per cent YoY growth in bookings, while Delhi registered 50 per cent. Bengaluru reported 128 per cent growth, while Kolkata and Chennai saw a 96 per cent and 103 per cent increase, respectively.
Kavikrut, chief growth officer of OYO, said, “The swing of the pendulum is now clearly visible in business travel and we are expecting this trend to continue. Demand is picking up across all key business cities, which confirms that the recovery is broad-based. In order to ensure a hassle-free stay experience for business travellers, we have introduced special programmes. Customers with corporate tie-ups can get curated stays options, strong personalised customer support and integration with their accounting system.”
Recently, OYO informed that its adjusted Ebitda grew eight times to Rs 56 crore in Q2, against Rs 7 crore in Q1. It was mainly driven by a 23 per cent quarterly rise in gross booking value per hotel during Q2 to around Rs 4 lakh. OYO has shared its financials with markets regulator Sebi. Ebitda stands for earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation.
Its monthly revenue per hotel, or gross booking value (GBV) per hotel per month, comes out as the strongest element in the performance, jumping 69 per cent year-on-year to Rs 3.48 lakh. Its total GBV itself grew 33 per cent to Rs 5,028 crore in H1 2022-23. The monthly increase in GBV per hotel is due to improved occupancy and higher average room rents as travel returns.
Despite the sharp uptick in EBIDTA, the company logged in a net loss of Rs 333 crore in the second quarter of FY23. However, the loss has reduced from the Rs 414 crore it reported for the first quarter of 2022-23.
Earlier, Sebi had given its approval to OYO to submit updated financials before it examined and finally processed the company’s application for floating public issue. It will set in motion the process of Sebi approval of the firm’s IPO.
In October 2021, OYO filed preliminary papers with Sebi to raise Rs 8,430 crore through an initial share sale. So far, it has not launched an IPO, citing the volatile nature of the market.
