OYO to add more than 150 premium hotels in Bengaluru in 2023  Focus on brands such as Townhouse Oak and Townhouse around key business  hubs  

Bengaluru: Global hospitality technology platform OYO has announced that it plans to  add more than 150 premium hotels in its portfolio in Bengaluru in 2023. OYO Rooms plans to support  the surge in business travel with this initiative. OYO Room’s expansion will focus on key business hubs  such as Indra Nagar, Kormangla, MG/Brigade Road, Whitefield and Central Bengaluru 
Premium hotel brands of OYO hotels include Townhouse Oak, OYO Townhouse, Collection O and Capital  O. OYO will focus on brands such as Townhouse Oak and Townhouse in the initial phase of expansion.  
Hotel owners to benefit from a bouquet of specially curated services such as enhanced exposure of the  hotel to potential guests with the help of OYO Room’s network of over 15000 corporate accounts and  more than 10000 travel agents across India and payment flexibility. This is over and above the  customers that come through OYO’s App, website and all the key Online Travel Agents (OTA’s). OYO’s  app is the third most downloaded travel app in the world.  
In addition to this, they also get the advantage of the trust and safety of the OYO platform, and a round the-clock customer support through OYO’s Artificial Intelligence powered Yo! Chat and end-to-end  proprietary customer support platform. 
The demand for premium hotels has picked up significantly in the last few months. This could be  attributed to the surge in domestic leisure travel, transient travel, pent-up demand from meetings,  incentives and weddings segment, and gradual recovery in business travel and foreign tourist arrivals  (FTAs).
A report by credit rating agency ICRA says that India’s hotel room supply pipeline is expected to grow at  5-year CAGR of 3.5-4% adding approximately 15,000 rooms to the pan India premium inventory of  approximately 94,000 rooms in financial year 2023.  
Elaborating on the plan, Anuj Tejpal, Chief Merchant Officer, OYO said “We are seeing a clear trend of  people's willingness to spend more on experiences. Therefore, hotels are now offering additional services  and amenities to enhance the travel experience and make it more convenient for guests. Our expansion  plan focusing on the growth of premium hotels is aligned with this trend”.  
OYO’s focus on premium hotels started in the last quarter of 2022 when it added more than 400 new  premium hotels between October to December. 
While traditional business travel is a strong growth opportunity, alternative business travel adds an  additional layer of growth in 2023. Bleisure travel, extending work trips for leisure, and flexcations,  combining remote work with leisure travel are upcoming trends which are likely to shape the growth.