OYO Hotels & Homes, the world's fastest growing hotel business, has picked up the Market Entrant of the Year award at the third annual UK-India Awards in London. The event celebrates the winning partnership between the UK and India with well known figures from the business community. 

At the Awards ceremony, which was attended by over 300 senior global leaders and changemakers across business, technology, innovation, politics, media, arts & culture around the world, OYO was celebrated for its impressive journey and results since expanding into the UK, its first market outside Asia.

OYO launched in the UK in late 2018, with a commitment to invest £40 million in the region. Already an Asian success story, OYO has grown rapidly in the UK and has built a network of hotels representing over 2,000 rooms across 25 cities and towns, including London, Manchester, Edinburgh and Glasgow. In little over eight months, it now employs 200 people across business development, operations, transformation, marketing and other functions. 

Founded in India in 2013, OYO works with independent hotel owners to improve their financial returns whilst ensuring guests have a great experience during each and every stay. OYO is creating growth opportunities for small to mid-sized budget hotels through a combination of proprietary technology, revenue management capabilities and operational expertise. It also transforms properties, often co-investing with owners to improve the look and feel of a hotel to increase its appeal to visitors. OYO's flexibility means that it can work with all types of hotel - business, leisure, metropolitan, rural, large or small - with the single aim of delivering value for hotel owners and customers alike.

Jeremy Sanders, Head of UK at OYO, who collected the award from former Cabinet Minister Patricia Hewitt,  said: “We are delighted to have been recognised with this award within our first year of UK operations. Six months ago, OYO had a team of 25 and just five hotels in London.  Today, we have a team of over 200 OYOpreneurs working with nearly 100 hotels across the UK. This award is a testament to the hard work of our team, and the amazing relations we are building with independent hotels across the country.” 

The awards celebrate individuals and organisations who use their influence to strengthen the bond between the UK and India and were the culmination of India Inc's UK-India Week. The week's programme also included an India Day at the Houses of Parliament and a two-day Leaders' Summit for business leaders, changemakers and entrepreneurs. 

The UK-India Awards were judged by an all female panel made up of leaders including Shalni Arora, CEO of Savannah Wisdom and Rt Hon. Patricia Hewitt, Former UK Cabinet Minister. Other winners include the SoftBank Vision Fund, BT and Manchester India Partnership. The Market Entrant of the Year Award was sponsored by Observer Research Foundation. 

OYO is backed by leading investors including the SoftBank Group, Airbnb, Sequoia India, Lightspeed India, Hero Enterprise and China Lodging Group. For more information, log on to https://www.oyorooms.com/gb

-Ends-

Notes to editors:

Since being founded in India in 2013 by 25-year-old entrepreneur Ritesh Agarwal, OYO Hotels & Homes has become South Asia's largest, China's second largest and the world's sixth largest hotel chain. It has footprints in more than 800 cities across 80 countries including India, the US, China, Malaysia, Nepal, the UK, UAE, Indonesia, the Philippines and Japan. It currently operates over 23,000 franchised or leased hotels and more than 46,000 holiday homes as part of its chain. With 850,000 rooms globally, OYO is globally adding more rooms than the world's top three hotel chains combined. Its Realised Value run-rate of $1.8 billion represents 4.3X year-on-year growth; and global annualised room nights have seen increases from 6 million in December 2016 to 13 million in December 2017 and 75 million in December 2018.

Media contacts:

Kate Popham, OYO - kate.popham@oyorooms.com / 07494 146097

Rosie Metcalfe / Billie Hubble, Headland – oyo@headlandconsultancy.com / 020 3805 4822