At 1.27 lakh, OYO sees highest daily bookings in May as travel surge builds

Yatra, Booking.com, Ixigo also see business uptick as travel picks up

Homegrown global travel technology company, OYO, has seen a record daily booking of 127,000 in May, reflecting a nearly 460 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) increase. Sources attributed the increase to a steady surge in travel and changes in the way OYO allows visitors to pay directly to the hotel.

Last May, India was hit hard by the second wave of Covid-19, leading to a steep decline in travel. The company’s data shows an uptrend in travel since the beginning of 2022, with an almost 104 per cent jump in bookings in May 2022 in comparison with January 2022, and a 21 per cent jump over April 2022, respectively.

The company recently announced two record-breaking weekends in April 2022 itself. During the Good Friday and Vishu week, OYO received 800,000 bookings, the highest ever in 2022, surpassing the New Year week.

The sources further said OYO is likely to get listed by Diwali if the Securities and Exchanges Board of India (Sebi) approves its DRHP by September. The company has recently updated its financials with Sebi, as there have been changes since it filed the draft papers for an IPO last year.

According to a recent announcement, OYO added 1,250 new corporate clients since March 2022. It said the revival was led by small and medium enterprises, traditional business houses and conglomerates, start-ups, travel management companies as well as film production houses, which have emerged as a key customer category for the company in recent times. Pune, Kolkata and Mumbai are key business hubs, leading the business travel surge.

According to industry tracker STR, the running 7-day average daily rate (ADR) for India’s hotels started crossing pre-pandemic levels since mid-April and continues to remain robust. The report further suggests that business demand has shown significant improvement post-Omicron in late April and early May.

Other travel players also saw strong uptick in business in May. Yatra reported 90 per cent of pre-Covid-level hotel bookings, while another popular travel booking platform, Booking.com also hit a record in the first quarter globally. Ixigo saw an average month-on-month increase of 25-30% in search queries for air travel, while train search queries increased 35-40 per cent across popular routes. 

According to MakeMyTrip’s recent Q4 earnings report, they saw profits rise by 8 per cent to $12 million. The Nasdaq-listed firm also stated that domestic corporate travel has opened across segments, and the company expected this growth to accelerate in the time to come.