BENGALURU: India’s largest hotel supply chain OYO is allegedly involved in duping partner hotels, bribing police officials, as well as pressuring its employees to meet sales expectations, as per a report carried by an international daily.
The allegations surface amidst an announcement by the Harvard Business School that it has taken up OYO’s journey as a case study in its curriculum, which talks about its challenges, journey and growth.
OYO’s rapid overseas expansion and multibillion-dollar investments in the past few years have rendered it as India’s second most valued start-up worth $10 billion; however, the 25-year-old Ritesh Aggarwal-led hotel chain was in the thick of controversy last year after various hotel associations alleged it of violating the code of conduct in the contracts.
In fact, hotels based in Bengaluru and Delhi have filed FIRs against Aggarwal and his colleagues, accusing them of cheating and forging the terms of finance contract. Aggarwal, on the other hand, had termed these accusations as baseless, perpetrated by rivals who lost market share after OYO’s entry into the segment.
According to the reported allegations, OYO declined to take out the hotels from its listings and labelled them as ‘sold out’ even after these properties pulled out of the contract. It also offered customers rooms belonging to unlicensed or illegally run hotels, and as a result, had to bribe police officials with free-lodging services to hush up the matter.
“We are committed to growing OYO the right way, by meeting simultaneously the needs of property owners as well as the guests. We work hard every day to ensure that our values are upheld by thousands of committed employees around the world, and we are subject to regular external audits to ensure proper compliance and adherence to our Code of Conduct. With regards to complaints of a small section of property owners in India whose payments are disputed, multiple escalation mechanisms exist and we continue to provide resolution.
We are also investing in technology and in building stronger partner support teams to ensure reconciliations happen faster. We expect all hotel owners to partner in delivering a superior guest experience. We will also continue to utilise the provisions in our contracts that allow us to incentivise and recognise thousands of owners who consistently deliver high-quality guest experience,” an OYO spokesperson told The New Indian Express in an emailed response. The hotel chain currently operates 1.2 million rooms across 80 countries.