L&T Infotech Says Oyo Is Not Safe For Female Employees; TCS, Vodafone, Britannia Are Leaving Oyo Rooms?

Some more bad news is coming in for Oyo Rooms. L&T Infotech and other corporates are now ditching Oyo Rooms, due to service issues. In fact, L&T Infotech has wrote to Oyo that their female employees are finding their service unsafe, and this is a big deal indeed.

OYO Hotels and Homes, now world’s 3rd biggest hotel chain with a presence in India, USA, China, Japan and host of other countries, have increased their financial loss by 6-times, to reach Rs 2384 crore, or Rs 6.5 crore per day.

OYO has over 8400 active corporate accounts from companies in India. These accounts contribute to over 30% of OYO’s total revenue. 

Oyo Hotels & Homes India & South Asia COO Gaurav Ajmera said ,”The corporate travel segment is a key engine of growth for us and we are seeing strong demand for our standardised and affordable offerings from business travellers across India.” 

What do the Corporate Companies and Hotel Partners having ties with OYO have to say?

Several corporate companies like L&T Infotech, Vodafone Idea, Tata Consultancy Services and Britannia have scaled down their business with the SoftBank-backed OYO Hotels and Homes alleging complaints of quality issues and safety and security of women as reported by the former employees of the company and hotel partners.

A statement from a former employee familiar with these issues stating, “ There are a lot of issues and right now OYO is not in a position where it can manage these issues. Corporates have cut back on business. Our corporate business stayed flat last year. There wasn’t any growth and to maintain the same levels it was very hard for us to retain corporate clients.”

December, 2019 witnessed L&T Infotech cutting ties with the company. 

An incident happened in Pune wherein their female employee’s safety and security was compromised. L&T Infotech also stated that though the incident happened once in only one hotel in Pune, OYO hasn’t taken any action or steps to ensure this won’t happen again.

Vodafone Idea have cut down on their business with OYO Hotels and Homes. Vodafone’s business with OYO concerning employee accommodation from their networking division fell from Rs 25 lakh in October,2019 to Rs 11 lakh in January, 2020.

Britania has raised transparency and quality concerns.

The complaints don’t end here.

A source also witnessed different corporate companies were charged different rates for the rooms.

An OYO hotel partner confirmed that the corporate business has been hit heavily.  The company cut down room rates on business hotels without asking the partners which led to the partners denying check-ins to corporate clients.

Is OYO Becoming Defensive Amidst The Chaos ?

OYO has to say that the company collected a total revenue of Rs 456cr from its corporate channel in the year 2019.

However OYO on Tuesday said its corporate channel has witnessed an 80% business growth last year due to an increase in corporate bookings.

In addition an OYO spokesperson also said that they are armed with several tools like escalation matrix, in-app SOS button on check-in to intimate Oyo Safety Response Team or Police about any emergency, in-person on-ground assistance and CCTV surveillance and security in all significant areas among many things to solve the customer’s concerns regarding safety and quality issues.

Gaurav Ajmera, the COO of OYO Hotels and Home also stated, “The company welcomed over 4,000 new corporations in 2019 and their trust in the brand is a testament to the value Oyo is creating for its corporate customers. As part of our continuous efforts to strengthen the corporate portfolio, we are working to customise our offerings as per their requirements both in terms of in-room amenities or technology and service-based solutions.”