Home-renting company Airbnb dives deeper into the hotel-booking business by investing in Indian hotel reservation start-up OYO’s series E funding round. Though Airbnb did not disclose the amount of the investment made, sources in the know said that the investment ranges between $100 to $200 million. As part of this deal, OYO is likely to list its properties on Airbnb platform thereby expanding its international reach and simultaneously strengthening Airbnb’s presence in Asia.
This investment underscores a growing trend of companies in the hospitality and travel segment to leverage each other’s strengths.
On 8th March, Airbnb bought HotelTonight, an app for finding hotel rooms at a discount, ahead of its hotly anticipated initial public offering (IPO).
“Emerging markets like India and China are some of Airbnb’s fastest-growing, with our growth increasingly powered by tourism to and from these markets,” said Greg Greeley, president of homes, Airbnb.
On the other hand, OYO has also been aggressively expanding its global footprint by entering markets such as UAE, Philippines, the US, and China over the past one year.
“Airbnb’s strong global footprints and access to local communities will open up new opportunities for OYO Hotels & Homes,” said Maninder Gulati, global chief strategy officer at OYO Hotels & Homes.
Airbnb has about 47,000 properties listed in India. Globally it has almost 6 million listings across 81,000 cities in 191 countries. Whereas, OYO has its presence in more than 259 cities in India with over 8,700 buildings and over 1,73,000 rooms.
