#Asia Calling us a Ponzi scheme is an insult to more than 2,200 of our employees, says OYO Rooms

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“We have loyal partners who work with us side by side, strong investors and a business that’s growing with positive take rates – calling all this a ‘Ponzi scheme’ is just preposterous!”

Oyo Rooms

Oyo Rooms

Founder and CEO Ritesh Agarwal hits back at Sumanth Raghavendra after he called the budge hotel aggregator a Ponzi scheme, through an internal email to OYO’s employees.

Dear Friends,

Many of you have expressed your anger and frustration since a post about OYO appeared on LinkedIn last evening. We have been criticized before and I am sure we will face criticism again in the future. However, by questioning our integrity and intent using presumptive half-baked theories and insufficient data the author has insulted more than 2,200 of us who are working day and night to realize our shared dreams.

It has taken a lot of sweat, a lot of pain and many sacrifices from all of us to get OYO to where we are today. We have amazing customers who love us, a great technology platform, one of the best teams in the start-up ecosystem, loyal partners who work with us side by side, strong investors and a business that’s growing month on month with positive take rates and a clear path to profitability – calling all this a ‘Ponzi scheme’ is just preposterous!

Also Read: Serial entrepreneur at the age of 22: Here’s how this young man built a profitable startup after being chucked out of his flat

We are here to solve a really difficult problem for the Indian budget travelers, and we are proud of what we have achieved already. OYO has started a revolution – from the largest OTAs to more than 20 start-ups across the globe, there are many who are trying to build another OYO.

Our customers love our product and our services. They love us because we take end-to-end responsibility for guest experience. Starting from selecting hotels, standardizing the infrastructure, training staff and using technology to drive ease of use, we have always seen ourselves as a hotel chain. More than 600 of our colleagues are working incessantly to shoulder this responsibility in the 179 cities we operate in. “I enjoyed my stay at OYO” or “I booked an OYO” are common references these days. And this is what brings each one of us to the office every day!

Not only are we growing fast, we are also growing strong! Our take rates have improved significantly and are now positive across the network including minimum guarantees (less than 3% of our business now). Our pricing team is continuously improving algorithms to maximize revenues while driving target take rates. Only ignorance or a strong desire to malign can lead to the use of a term like “Ponzi scheme” in the above context.

Ritesh Agarwal

Ritesh Agarwal

Our consumer app is game-changing – a simple three-click booking process, relevant content, turn by turn directions, in-app ordering service, choice of hotels at almost every location and so on. This app is fundamentally changing consumer behavior – our customers are now booking more and more OYOs closer to check-in time, a trend earlier seen only in the taxi aggregator space.

Also Read: India’s OYO Rooms secures US$100M, will expand domestically instead

More than 99.5% of our guests get exactly what they book. This is made possible by our partner hotel mobile app that ensures real-time synchronization of room inventory. Our partners also are making more money and are getting better returns on their assets because of OYO. With more than 5,700 OYOs on our network now, we have lost fewer than 2% hotels ever – most let go after consistently failing to deliver a predictable guest experience.

Like any evolving start-up, we have made our fair share of mistakes. Nothing hurts us more than a guest undergoing a bad experience. We have always stood up to take responsibility and then worked tirelessly to build OYO, one great experience at a time. Many times I have personally apologized to the customer. Each mistake hurts me, but I am not ashamed of my mistakes, as I am yet to hear of an entrepreneur who can claim to have succeeded without making mistakes.

As a company, we are always open to constructive criticism but when someone questions our intent and integrity, it infuriates us all. Your reaction is a reminder of how passionate we are about OYO and how closely we are bound together in our mission. If there is one thing I know, it is that naysayers and detractors increase our resolve to create the world’s most loved hotel brand. Keep building team!

Cheers,
Ritesh

The post Calling us a Ponzi scheme is an insult to more than 2,200 of our employees, says OYO Rooms appeared first on e27.

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