OYO Hotels & Homes has opened a dedicated segment in the OYO App in India to provide travel-related assistance. It offers access to state-wise travel instructions, including criteria for E-Pass / Entry registration, visibility of limitations when booking a hotel, and criteria for quarantine.
The move is based on the understanding that 80 percent of OYO customers considering travel are looking for sanitized visits, while 46 percent are looking for regulatory details while making decisions.
In collaboration with SRL Diagnostics, 1 mg, and Indus Health Plus, OYO will also offer COVID-19 monitoring assistance to customers on its smartphone. Via ICMR certified pathology laboratories, the partners would allow research. The goal of the move is to ensure customers’ peace of mind when preparing future trips. If the customer books an OYO hotel or home for a destination that needs a COVID-19 Negative Certificate to be held by the passenger, they will receive an auto-call back alternative for the COVID-19 examination from a reputable pathology lab.
“We’ve been working 24 hours a day to lay the foundation to make OYO a consumer’s first option if they are thinking of traveling safely again, comments Rohit Kapoor, CEO, India. Our senior leaders have listened to almost 2000 + customers directly to consider their hopes and concerns, their needs, and their demands. Through our efforts to ensure a smooth and insightful preparation mechanism for customers who want to travel safely, we hope that we can contribute to their journeys from the very beginning and, in turn, contribute to the successful return of the tourism ecosystem in India.
Kapoor continued, ‘The 2nd weekend of October is about to begin, and we believe that our relationship with the pathology laboratories will make our travel planning customers feel relaxed. In the past couple of months, considering the reality around COVID-19, recreational tourism has taken a backseat for company or important journeys leaving little space for the recovery of main tourist destinations. But on the higher side, there is a promising increase for customers seeking to fly over the next three months as the Member States are unlocking and reopening. According to OYO’s case for market use, 56% of customers would fly for pleasure, and 43% for the company. The majority have selected Kerala, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Rajasthan, on requests about their next destination. Among those, 45% would prefer hill-stations like Shimla and Mussoorie, while the remainder would prefer non-Hill stations like Goa, Agra, and Jaipur, with 55% of leisure travelers.
OYO reached the 50-million mark recently, leading India with the most downloads, following Indonesia, Malaysia, the United States, and Brazil. Throughout India, New Delhi, Pune, Kolkata, Lucknow, and Hyderabad are the top five cities with the most uploads. Interestingly, the company had 32 applications updated per minute on average in 2020.
