OYO partners with Microsoft to co-develop travel and hospitality products and technologies

Homegrown Hospitality firm OYO today announced it has entered into a multi-year strategic partnership with technology giant Microsoft to co-develop next-gen travel and hospitality products and technologies. 

According to the statement, OYO will adopt Microsoft Azure as a key enabler to drive cloud-based innovations and reimagine the hospitality and travel tech industry.

This partnership will benefit patrons who operate small and medium hotels and home storefronts, the company said in a statement. Besides this, Microsoft is also a strategic investor in Ritesh Agarwal-led OYO Rooms.

As part of the partnership, OYO will develop Smart Room experiences for travelers on the OYO platform, such as premium and customized in-room experiences for its guests.

The company further said that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought massive shifts in consumer behaviors while booking travel, including preferences for platforms that enable social distancing, local travel, flexibility, faster booking, and improved customer experiences.

Such changes have accelerated the way small and medium hotel businesses operate, leading to a slew of pioneering technologies and higher-tech adoption, which will further shape the future of hospitality, it said.

Speaking on the development, Abhinav Sinha, Global COO & Chief Product Officer – OYO Hotels & Homes said:

“We are excited to join hands with Microsoft in our constant endeavor to improve business opportunities for the small and independent hotel and homeowners and to redefine experiences for travelers."

"Our patron app ecosystem provides a ~1.4-2.4X lift in revenues for new hotels and homes that join the OYO network. We do this through our products, and application of (Machine Learning) ML and (Artificial Intelligence) AI, be it running millions of pricing optimizations per day to increase revenues or enabling users to book an OYO within seconds," Abhinav said.

He further said that the partnership with Microsoft will accelerate the deployment of products in the hands of small businesses it works with. Additionally, This will help the company to create even more impact through an integrated technology ecosystem available on the cloud for businesses in the remotest corners of the world, he adds.

“Combining the power of Azure with the tech and product stack developed by OYO, we are looking forward to accelerating innovation in travel and hospitality,” Anant Maheshwari, President, Microsoft India, said. “It is inspiring to see how the Microsoft cloud is empowering digital natives like OYO to accelerate industry transformation and innovations, turning the challenges of a post-pandemic era into opportunities for the future," he adds.

Apart from this, the homegrown hospitality firm will also begin to share existing workloads to Microsoft Azure, adopt the Microsoft 365 suite for better collaboration and productivity and switch to Github Enterprise for accelerating tech development in a secure manner.

To make its technologies more accessible, OYO is also working on several products to ease patron onboarding, the statement adds.

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