A hoteliers’ collective in Bengaluru has written a complaint to City Police Commissioner Bhaskar Rao to probe hotel chain OYO Hotels and Homes. The letter alleging cheating was sent after some members of the Bruhat Bengaluru Hotels Association met Additional Commissioner of Police, East S Murugan on September 12 on the same issue.
Speaking to TNM, the association president PC Rao said, “There are many issues with OYO. Many of our association members have moved out of their service but still, we have not got our payments. In some cases, there are delayed payments and in some cases, there have been no payments at all.”
He added, “While there is an agreement of not renting out rooms less than Rs 1,000 for a day with many hotels, they have not honoured it and neither have they compensated the hotel owners. Since there are many cases we wanted the Commissioner to probe.”
The association claims in the recent months, 100 member hotels have logged out of OYO and said the pattern is similar across the state.
However, OYO claims no formal complaint was made.
“While vested interest groups are creating unnecessary public uproar to sensationalize the matter, real OYO asset owners that are facing issues, if any, are reaching out to find solutions and get back to running the business. They are focused on finding ways to improve customer experience and thereby their occupancy and profitability,” a company spokesperson said.
OYO further added, “As always, we continue to engage with our asset owners, as for vested interest groups such as this, we would like to request them to focus on driving the next wave of growth in the hospitality industry, by having a long term view of situations as against sensationalizing matters to defame a brand that has been built over the years with the hard work of thousands of young OYOpreneurs, asset owners and millions of customers. We urge them to focus on creating great living experiences for millions of middle-income people across India, and in the process support the Government’s mission to drive tourism in the country and also create additional job opportunities for young hospitality enthusiasts in the country.”
This development incidentally comes after Whitefield police had booked OYO CEO and founder Ritesh Agarwal and others for cheating and criminal breach of trust following a complaint by a city-based hotelier. In his complaint, Natarajan, owner of Rajguru Shelter Hotels alleged that the company violated an agreement of taking only 20% commission from each reservation and in the process cheated him to the tune of Rs 1 crore.
The agreement between Rajguru Shelter Hotels and OYO was drawn in February 2017.
That time OYO has denied the allegations and said that this was an exaggerated commercial dispute.
Earlier too, there has been friction between OYO and individual hotel owners for allegedly arm twisting them.
In July, TNM had reported how many hotel operators felt the company is hurting their businesses. “OYO has been cheating the hotel owners by using various gimmicks and arm-twisting tactics, which has resulted in huge losses for hotel owners and has disrupted the hotel industry and market,” Pradeep Shetty, a committee member of the Hotel and Restaurant Association of Western India (HRAWI), had told TNM then.