Airbnb Checks Into Oyo With $200 Million Investment – What Are Their Intentions?

World’s largest online marketplace of hotels and homestays: Airbnb has officially announced that they will invest in Oyo Rooms.

Now, Oyo is India’s biggest hospitality chain, and this new formed friendship between Airbnb and Oyo certainly raises some eyebrows.

What are their intentions?

Airbnb Announces Investment Into Oyo

The exact amount of investment was not formally announced by either party, and the very fact that Airbnb is investing into Oyo has been confirmed.

Maninder Gulati, global chief strategy officer at Oyo, said in a statement, “Airbnb’s strong global footprints and access to local communities will open up new opportunities for Oyo Hotels & Homes.”

This is for the first time that Airbnb has decided to invest in an Indian firm.

As per unconfirmed reports, Airbnb is looking at an investment of $150 to $200 million into Oyo Rooms.

Airbnb-Oyo Partnership: What Are The Possibilities?

As per the reports, Airbnb is mainly interested in forging a partnership with Oyo for their Oyo Homes offering. Tourists and travelers can rent out entire homes using, and check-in process is completely automated.

Starting at Rs 7999, Oyo Homes offers a different experience compared to Oyo Rooms, which are mainly hotels branded with Oyo.

Airbnb’s homestay business model is very close to what Oyo Homes offers, and this can be a reason that Airbnb decided to invest into Oyo.

Airbnb’s president of homes, Greg Greeley said, “We share a dedication to offering people more choices when traveling and we’re excited to partner with OYO as we work to make Airbnb for everyone,”

Oyo Listings On Airbnb Will Begin

As part of this unique partnership, now Oyo’s listings will appear on Airbnb platform, and Airbnb consumers will be able to access Oyo’s service offerings.

This opens up unique business opportunities for both Airbnb and Oyo, as they can now converge their energies, and aim for more market capture, rather than battling each one out.

Will Oyo Become World’s Largest Hotel Chain?

Oyo is right now present in 8 countries: India, China, Malaysia, Nepal, the U.K., UAE, Indonesia, and the Philippines, and offers 500,000 rooms across 13,000 hotels and 6,000 homes.

The company has already received $1.5 billion funding till date, and in their last investment round, SoftBank’s Vision Fund and Didi Chuxing took active participation.

Lightspeed, Sequoia and Greenoaks Capital already have invested into the company, and their valuation as per their last Series E funding was $5 billion.

We will keep you updated, as more details come in.