by Sachin murdeshwar
OYO Hotels and Homes, the world’s third-largest and fastest-growing chain of hotels, homes and living spaces, has announced it will strengthen its focus in Europe on OYO Vacation Homes and the vacation rental market, given the increasing preference for vacation homes by customers around the world. This decision follows the rapid growth of the recently acquired brands Belvilla, DanCenter, Danland, and Traum-Ferienwohnungen, combined with the many opportunities still to be capitalized within the vacation rental industry. The growth strategy for OYO Vacation Homes is tailored towards offering guests a consistent top-notch holiday experience and becoming the partner of choice for homeowners. The company has committed to invest €300 million in the business, with a special focus on strengthening the relationship with homeowners and enabling them with the resources required to deliver chic hospitality experiences. Identifying vacation rentals service business as a multi-billion Euro opportunity, OYO will aim to expand the presence of OYO Home, Belvilla and Dancenter brands across Europe to pursue the significant opportunity of becoming the number 1 vacation rental brand globally.
Tobias Wann, CEO, OYO Vacation Homes, says: “To support our vision towards becoming the largest full-service vacation rental business, we will make significant investments to expand our footprint in the market. We are focusing on enhancing our customer proposition to not just families but new age millennials and young executives, traveling for business or leisure, including consumers from newer geographies who travel to Europe from across the world including US, Asia, China and the Middle East. Consistently offering chic-looking, well-managed and organized holiday homes to our guests as well as opening doors to more vacation rentals will help unlock our next growth phase. With a goal of becoming the largest vacation rentals business in Europe, OYO Vacation Homes will continue to make significant investments in resourcing and manpower towards growing its existing footprint in the market.”
Investments to be expected on various fronts
OYO Vacation Homes is the first vacation rental company to start offering homeowner property investments on a large scale for amenities ranging from air conditioning and appliance upgrades to property enhancements like a swimming pool or sauna.
For guests, this will elevate their stay and help create happiness and bright unforgettable memories. Major technology updates on (booking) platforms, such as the Belvilla website, will enable improved booking experience.
High quality cleaning services and technology-enabled key management, with a proven track record in the Netherlands, will now be rolled out in the rest of Europe. This will particularly be welcomed by homeowners with multiple properties or residing far from their holiday home.
Investments into the Vacation Rental management services will also come with more resources for the vacation home business in Europe. With offices in Switzerland, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, France, and cities across Europe, the teams will be supporting the growth of the vacations business across identified regions.
Maninder Gulati, Global Head, OYO Vacation and Urban Homes, & Chief Strategy Officer, OYO Hotels & Homes, says: “Globally, vacation rentals represent a massive multi-billion Euro opportunity, the largest of which is in Europe. With Europe spearheading the vacation and urban home rental trend globally, OYO Vacation Homes is uniquely positioned to capitalize on its experience and insights aided with OYO’s proven approach towards building the world’s largest global vacation rentals business.”
Growth rate doubled in the last two months
Today, more than 2.8 million holidaymakers from over 118 countries experience their holiday every year with OYO Vacation Homes. Since the acquisition in May, OYO Vacation Homes has doubled its growth rate. Outlooks for the rest of the year are even more positive and it is expected to accelerate even further in 2020.
