Global economy is facing a very hard time right now due to COVID-19 and hospitality industry is hit very badly. One of the world’s top hotel’s chain OYO, that is being funded by Softbank is no exception.
OYO has slashed salaries of executives at senior and top-level. According to the company’s statement, its founder and CEO Ritesh Agarwal has taken a 100% pay cut while the entire executive leadership took a voluntary pay cut beginning at 25%.
“Given the current business situation, which is unprecedented for our industry globally, I am foregoing 100% of my salary for the rest of the year,” Agarwal said.
Many senior team members are opting for an additional uncapped amount, and some going up to 50% to enable building the runway for the company, the release added.
Although Oyo hasn’t decided to lay off staff at this time, the SoftBank-backed company had reportedly fired about 5,000 staffs globally in the past three-four months to control burn and bring efficiency. Like other hotel brands, its business in the 80 countries it operates in, including China, has been witnessing less than 20% occupancy rate for several weeks.
Several companies in the travel and hospitality sectors had already executed layoffs and slashed salaries.
MakeMyTrip and Ixigo slashed salaries significantly while TravelTriangle and Fab Hotels executed layoffs to counter the challenges amid the lockdown to stop the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.
If this lasts for a bit long, then it will have very much significant effect on global economy. We hope to see some significant change in the situation once things are in place again.