Hospitality chain OYO expects to recover 85 per cent of its pre-Covid level of supply of rooms in India by the end of 2020. The company has seen an improvement in occupancy and revenue after the lockdown and travel restrictions are being gradually eased.

“After the first unlock, many states had restrictions on travel and hotels till the end of August. Since August-end, occupancies have seen a sharp rebound and revenues have been growing 30 per cent month-on-month. Our occupancies have recovered to around 40 per cent of the pre-Covid level with room sales increasing 30 per cent month-on-month. Some of the brands such as OYO TownHouse is operating at 85 per cent of the pre-Covid occupancy levels,” said Rohit Kapoor, CEO, OYO India and South Asia.

Kapoor, who was in town, told The Telegraph that according to recent Diwali booking trends, the company has witnessed an intent to make bookings by consumers visiting the OYO platform at almost 100 per cent levels compared with pre-Covid times, while traffic is at over 50 per cent.

“Travel is coming back slowly and we see an uptick in leisure travel with Jaipur, Kochi, Visakhapatnam, Agra and Goa becoming the most frequently visited destination. Some cities such as Shimla, Manali, Munnar, Ooty and Gangtok are also showing a rise in bookings since September,” said Kapoor.

“In terms of revival of our India operations, I am cautiously optimistic about the market at the moment. Asset owners in India continue to choose OYO and we have opened 15,000 to 18,000 rooms per month between July and September and we are working towards achieving 85 per cent of pre-Covid levels of supply by the end of 2020,” Kapoor said.

The company has made a few changes in its leadership team. Harshit Vyas has been elevated to the position of COO, India and South Asia, franchise business; Ankit Gupta is the CEO of frontier business; and Abhinav Ankur has been appointed chief strategy and transformation officer. Anuj Bhatnagar is CFO, business; Abhishek Bansal is the chief revenue officer; and Yatish Jain is head of marketing and growth.