OYO Hotels and Homes have started operating in Saudi Arabia. The deal is with 50 hotels in the country for more than 3,000 rooms across seven cities. The announcement comes following the arrival of Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman in India on Tuesday.
OYO has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Public Investment Fund, Saudi Arabia. The hospitality major also plans to set up two OYO Skill Institutes – one in Riyadh and another in Jeddah – to train graduates in hotel management.
OYO Rooms, commonly known as OYO, is India’s largest hospitality company consisting mainly of budget hotels. It was founded in 2013 by Ritesh Agarwal and has since grown to over 8,500 hotels in 337 cities in India, Malaysia, UAE, Nepal, China and Indonesia.
Commenting on the development, OYO Hotels & Homes Group CEO and Founder Ritesh Agarwal said: “We are committed to creating quality, affordable living spaces, and thousands of jobs for the young people of Saudi Arabia. It has been our long-standing belief that provided with the right direction and tools, smaller assets can also generate positive returns.”
This expansion, therefore, is in line with company’s quest to support Saudi Arabia’s blossoming hospitality ecosystem and creating infrastructure for asset owners to grow and run successful businesses, all of this while ensuring high standards of quality, he added.
The company obtained its foreign investment licence from Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA) few months ago and plans to invest significantly in Saudi Arabia, and expand to over 17 cities across 6 provinces by 2020,” SAGIA Governor Ibrahim bin Abdul Rahman Al-Omar said.