Ankit Gupta, the India CEO of hospitality technology platform Oyo, and Mandar Vaidya, the head of Oyo’s European operations, will both be moving on from the company.
25.08.2023 - 14:34 / skift.com / Delta Air Lines / Rashaad Jorden / Sean Oneill / Tom Lowry
Good morning from Skift. It’s Tuesday, November 29. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.
Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Overcast | Google Podcasts
India-based budget hotel operator and online travel company Oyo hopes to proceed with plans to go public next year, although it almost certainly won’t get its once-hoped-for valuation of $12 billion, reports Asia Editor Peden Bhutia.
Oyo looks to launch its initial public offering around the fiscal first quarter of 2023, which runs from April to June. The company has recently submitted updated financial figures containing results from the first half of its financial year to Indian authorities as part of the process for going public. Oyo recorded a $40 million net loss during the period.
Although Oyo had originally sought a valuation of roughly $12 billion, Bhutia writes that Softbank Group, Oyo’s largest investor, reportedly cut Oyo’s already diminished valuation by more than 20 percent in late September. The valuation could end up being around $6.5 billion.
Oyo had originally planned to raise around $1.1 billion through the initial public offering.
Next, many travel companies launched virtual tours during the early stages of the pandemic, but subsequently shut them down. But tour operator Context Travel is going a step further, developing pre-trip virtual educational sessions that it believes will build customer engagement, writes Travel Experiences Reporter Selene Brophy.
The company has created Context Learning, a virtual experience product that provides online seminars with experts before and after day tours. Context Learning enables customers to connect with experts periodically instead of only booking tours and activities once or twice per year. Context Travel founder Paul Bennett said travelers could, for example, take a mini-course to meet the archaeologist hosting an archaeological deep dive prior to departure.
Context Travel CEO June Chin-Ramsey said the company saw a 10 percent increase in revenue from virtual experiences during the spring and summer of this year.
Finally, sustainability was one of the major topics addressed at the recent Skift Aviation Forum in Dallas, and two airline industry leaders and a consultant discussed how flying can be greener, a major issue for aviation, reports Senior Hospitality Editor Sean O’Neill.
Editor-in-Chief Tom Lowry, the discussion’s moderator, said an audience poll found only 37 percent believe the airline industry can meet its long-term climate goals. The three panelists acknowledged the challenges airlines face in flying sustainably. However, Danielle Bozarth, senior partner at consulting firm McKinsey, expressed optimism that the industry would benefit from innovation making
Ankit Gupta, the India CEO of hospitality technology platform Oyo, and Mandar Vaidya, the head of Oyo’s European operations, will both be moving on from the company.
Imagine waking up to the chime of a medieval clock, then settling down to work with a thousand-year-old castle as your backdrop.
Oyo, in preparation for its upcoming IPO in 2023, is doing a major reorg of its organizational structure and cost base. It has announced it is letting go of 600 employees out of a total of about 3700, mostly in its product and tech teams. From the company:
India-based budget hotel operator and aggegator Oyo updated its draft red herring prospectus with results for the first half of the fiscal year signalling its intent to soon launch its initial public offering.
Aviation contributes only about 3 percent of the greenhouse gases that worsen climate change, but airplanes don’t have good options to switch away from hydrocarbons. So aviation risks becoming a target for anger among green activists, threatening the long-term viability of mass-market leisure flights.
Good morning from Skift. It’s Tuesday, January 10, and here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.
Here are some excerpts from Daily Lodging Report from the past week. If you’re not a subscriber, you should be. Get news on hotel deals, development, stocks, and career moves. Sign up here, now.
The initial public offering of India-based budget hotel operator and aggregator Oyo may be further pushed back from its intended deadline of a launch within the first quarter this year.
Keen to pursue its long-anticipated initial public offering (IPO), hospitality tech company Oyo has said it would be refiling its draft red herring prospectus with the Indian stock market regulator Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) by mid-February.
Oyo, the India-based budget hotel chain and booking platform, plans to double its premium segment hotel count in Indonesia from around 200 properties to over 400 by the end of 2023.
Good morning from Skift. It’s Tuesday, February 28. Here’s what you need to know about the business of travel today.
Oyo, which advertises itself online as “India’s Best Online Hotel Booking Site for Sanitized Stays,” said it is performing well in the U.S. — after de-emphasizing its U.S. presence during the height of the pandemic.