Where to begin. We have been running our hotel smoothly and independently for some time now, and OYO came across as a form of opportunity, which would have (in theory) enabled us to expand as a small business.
From the first day we signed on as a client with OYO, we have had nothing but headaches - nothing was straightforward. Getting anyone to finalise anything took weeks, all communications seemed to be pushed from pillar to post and resembled Chinese whispers more than professional communication.
The transformation works were a disaster - the first photographer we had do our 'branded' photos was appalling. It looked like he had walked into the rooms while they were being cleaned and just took pictures and uploaded them to all our OTAs. Surprise, surprise, we were quiet for months. When the relevant person was made aware of this, it took almost 8 weeks for a new photographer to take photos and get them uploaded. Frankly, this is disgraceful as this was damaging to the business image. OYO's branding is questionable at best - if we had taken a step back, the branding team would have put all kinds of hideous things in the hotel which clash with the hotel itself. Forgive us for caring about the image of the hotel.
On top of all that, this opened a can of worms with regard to the room rates - as much as OYO has a 'pricing strategy', all this means is that the hotel itself was horrendously devalued due to the fact that there is someone putting these prices in place with absolutely no knowledge of the area, market, or clientele (The same applies to the branding debacle). They just assume 'this hotel is quiet, let's slash prices' - £27 pounds for 2 adults in a double room (winter or not) might as well be a YMCA - not a 4* bed and breakfast. Even after alterations to these prices have been made and compromises reached (which takes weeks in itself), it seems as though all of this goes out of the window, as this has been an ongoing issue. It attracts the wrong type of person which has led to aggressive guests mismanaging staff which I have been on the receiving end of myself (chances are they have already had a negative experience with OYO customer service), guests being removed from the property by local police for property damage, abusive behaviour, etc.
Then comes the 'weekly' reconciliation payment. If you are lucky enough to have an Operations Manager that visits your hotel weekly and pushes this paperwork through on time, great. Even then it can be a stretch to assume you will be paid on time, and even if you are, I would read the paperwork VERY carefully - it would seem that the figures don't add up all the time. This feels less like a partnership and more like an agent keeping an eye on you. You are supposed to trust them at every instance, and nothing suggests that OYO trusts you. This all plays into the big selling point - the Minimum Revenue Guarantee. Don't be fooled by the difference between a Soft Launch and a Go-Live date. In our experience, 'Soft Launch' translates to 'We will take control of your hotel', and 'Go-Live' translates to 'at which point then you can blame us for what goes wrong' (which I might add, contractually, is supposed to be a 60-day period, although in our case was actually much, much longer). Apparently, everything that occurs before the actual Go-live date doesn't exist, regardless of what proof one comes forward with to the contrary. A quarterly guarantee would suggest being paid for all 3 months of that quarter, as you are led to believe by their agents on the ground - as it happens, you will find that there are hidden fees and roundabout 'reasons' as to why you will not get your full payment - if you are paid at all (CHECK THE PAPERWORK).
If you were to query any of this, it would seem you don't actually get an answer to the questions asked - merely what one can only describe as a semi-scripted and rehearsed plan of action to pull the wool over your eyes and make it difficult to get to the bottom of anything in particular.
Guests question the use of the customer service - when they call to query/complain, they get redirected to the OTA in the first instance, or to the hotel themselves in the second instance. I am not sure how this can be described as 'taking control of bookings'.
Finally, there are numerous claims of staff being hired/fired at a minute's notice - as a hotelier, this is plays out awfully as there is zero communication from OYO regarding: replacements, inconveniences, and steps taken to rectify any mistakes that may occur due to them being understaffed (See above for list of mistakes). Regardless of how far up the chain of command you go, nobody seems to be able to take responsibility for mistakes made.
This entire experience has been agonising and stressful from the beginning.
