Hospitality chain OYO has announced the acquisition of Europe-based vacation homes firm Direct Booker for $5.5 million to strengthen its presence in the overseas markets. The move comes amidst re-opening of foreign travel and tourism with the COVID wave flattening across these geographies. OYO said that Direct Booker has over 3200 homes and has serviced 2 million customers so far.
OYO already owns and operates brands such as Belvilla (Belvilla by OYO), DanCenter, Traum Ferienwohnungen, among others in Europe. Direct Booker’s inventory will be available on Belvilla.com (Belvilla by OYO) and over time on its other platforms.
This acquisition will strengthen OYO’s presence in Europe broadly and Croatia specifically where it already has nearly 1800 vacation homes on its Belvilla platform and over 7000 homes on its Traum Ferienwohnungen platform.
OYO has in the recent past declared its intent of actively scouting for ‘tuck-in’ acquisitions, especially in the European market as a strategic growth lever. OYO already has a strong footprint in The Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium, Germany, Austria, etc.
“Homes continue to be an important strategic segment for OYO. With our leading operating system, dynamic pricing capability and other data science enabled features, we have been able to add value to our over 140,000 home storefronts,” said Ankit Tandon, Global Chief Business Officer, OYO, who led this acquisition.
“I am sure OYO’s cutting edge technology, distribution systems and data sciences will add more value to their current 3,200 homes and enhance our collective growth in Europe. We continue to focus on going deep in Europe and delivering the best Vacation Home experiences to our customers,” he added.
“We are happy to join forces with a global travel tech company like OYO. We strongly believe that by merging our technologies and expertise, this partnership will positively impact the Croatian tourism economy, further driving demand through OYO’s existing platforms spread across Europe. Being a part of OYO’s network will also increase visibility for the homes listed on our platform, especially across Scandinavian, Benelux and surrounding countries. The next couple of months will be truly exciting as we work towards building our business together,” Nino Dubretic, CEO & co-founder of Direct Booker, said.
OYO, meanwhile, is headed for an Initial Public Offering (IPO) to raise nearly $1.2 billion from public markets for which it is yet to get a SEBI approval. As reported by BT earlier, the company, due to the ongoing macroeconomic crisis owing to the Russia-Ukraine war, has reduced its valuation target for its upcoming IPO. The firm had last raised funds at $9.6 billion.
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