India: Hotel aggregator OYO Rooms is planning to expand its offer to include serviced apartments and homestays by the end of the year.
The SoftBank-backed company is in advanced partnership talks with various real estate companies for the expansion.
OYO Rooms had phased out its OYO Homes and Studio Stays categories (in the homestay and serviced apartment categories) which was launched last year and is now looking to bring them back through the initiative.
“Serviced apartments is a huge opportunity. We are doing a lot of work there and are signing very large partnerships,” said Ritesh Agarwal, founder of OYO Rooms. “For the new apartment category , we are currently (finalising) partnerships with real estate builders.”
The company has brought on board smaller real estate players and will be working on newly constructed properties and refurbished older home stays and serviced apartments owned by real estate companies.
OYO’s expansion in this sector comes as it is in talks to raise $300 to $500 million. The deal, which could result in the largest financing round in India’s startup sector since November 2015, could value the Gurgaon-based startup at $1.2 billion.
The company launched in the Malaysian market last year. “Our long-term view is to become a large global organisation. We aspire to launch in a new country every three to six months, starting 2017,” said Agarwal.</p
