American hotel giants are moving aggressively into India, seeing it as the next frontier for growth. With rising incomes, a booming domestic travel sector and a government eager to improve the country’s tourism infrastructure, India is commanding unprecedented attention from the world’s most prominent hotel brands. Marriott International, the largest...
India’s Oyo Acquires Motel 6 and Studio 6 for $525M
Headquartered near New Delhi, Oyo, the India-based hotel company, has agreed to acquire the Motel 6 and Studio 6 hotel brands from Blackstone for $525 million in an all-cash deal. This marks Oyo's second attempt to expand in the U.S. market as the SoftBank-backed startup continues its efforts to go...
Ritesh Agarwal, the Amazingly Ambitious Hotelier
When he was 19, Agarwal spent three months traveling around India. In places such as Darjeeling, Delhi, Goa, Kerala, and Rajasthan, he lived a budget traveler’s nightmare: filthy hotels with dirty sheets, roaches, bedbugs, peeling wall paint, doors that didn’t close properly, foam blocks that passed as mattresses, and buckets...
India is Home to 27 Unicorn Startups
Today, India is the third largest startup ecosystem in the world with the number of startups at 7,500 in 2018, a growth or 15 percent from 2017, with at least 27 of India's startups gaining unicorn status since 2014 -- most of them in 2018 or 2019,according to trade body...
India's OYO Enters America's Budget Hotel Market
Having raised $1 billion from the Japanese investor SoftBank, India's hospitality unicorn Oyo entered the U.S. market by opening an office in Dallas, and is testing the market with OYO Townhouses in Austin, Texas. The company generates most of its demand directly, and its customers book rooms via its mobile app. Oyo focuses on the...