Oyo hotels & homes launches operations in Japan in a JV with Yahoo! Japan

New Delhi, February 22, 2019: OYO - South Asia’s largest, and world’s fastest growing chain of hotels, homes and quality spaces - today announced the commencement of its operations in Japan, through a joint venture with Yahoo Japan Corporation (“Yahoo! JAPAN”) to form OYO Technology & Hospitality Company, Japan. Through this entity, OYO will bring its successful housing rental product from India, OYO Living, re-christened as OYO LIFE to Japan beginning of March, in 2019. Geared to provide upgraded living experiences at an affordable price, OYO LIFE aims to enter the housing rental segment in the country, targeting the young and growing population of Japan, starting with students and young professionals. Japanese entrepreneur and former Japan market leader for Handy and Booking.com, Hiro Katsuse, has been appointed as the CEO, the newly formed joint venture company.

“OYO Hotels and Homes has been re-engineering living worldwide and is a leading global franchising and hospitality company. Globally, we have close to half a million rooms with a clear focus on providing great living spaces. After successfully growing our business in our home markets, India and China, and expanding our presence to nine countries, we are really excited about commencing our operations in our third and potentially the largest home market - Japan, through a joint venture with Yahoo! Japan to form OYO Technology & Hospitality Company, Japan. This new entity will be focused on creating unique living experiences for the Japanese citizens, students, and young professionals, looking for good quality affordable accommodations, starting with our fully managed homes brand - OYO LIFE. OYO is already the most preferred brand in the budget to mid-segment hospitality space in several markets like India and China, where our operational expertise in identifying, transforming and managing properties has helped us gain significant momentum, and we are certain that we will deliver great value in the Japanese market. ” said Ritesh Agarwal, CEO & Founder, OYO Hotels and Homes. "We are really happy to partner with OYO, through this joint venture and are certain that with a promise to deliver good quality fully managed homes at affordable prices. With our local know-how, online distribution network and marketing support, OYO LIFE will soon emerge as the most preferred abode for the Japanese citizens and visitors in the country," said Kentaro Kawabe, CEO, Yahoo! Japan.

OYO LIFE gives you the freedom to live your life your own way

The home rental real estate industry is large and growing with a market size of 12 trillion yen. To rent a property, customers have to go through a lot of challenges, they need to spend time searching for the

property, deal with multiple agents, spend a lot of time, and energy, and be ready to sign long term leases, upfront deposit, etc. Once they find the house, they need to invest in furniture and appliances, etc. OYO LIFE brings to them a new housing rental solution - ready to move in beautifully designed homes, that eliminates the hassles of finding, accessing and managing everyday housing. This is one of OYO LIFE’s biggest advantages. Customers can now choose a lifestyle which gives them the freedom to live their life their own way - financial freedom with minimal deposits and no lock-in periods and privacy so that they can save and spend the way they like. These accommodations - apartments, homes, and shared spaces are easy to find, easier to move in, and easiest to live in as they can enjoy essential amenities which include furniture, Wi-Fi connectivity, television, electronic household appliances, regular housekeeping, CCTV surveillance, digitally enabled locks for additional security and 24/7 assistance, at no extra costs. OYO LIFE is truly a new way of life! Lately, in Japan, the based subscription services in music, video, apparel, and furniture are gaining popularity, which has resulted in a change in consumer mindset from ‘owning to sharing’ resources. With this more and more customers open up to ‘housing or managed workspaces as a service’, which presents a huge opportunity for OYO LIFE.

OYO LIFE is a residential asset owner's best offering as it provides guaranteed yield and technology-based maintenance

For home owners, this is first of its kind opportunity, where OYO takes complete responsibility of managing their property, including regular maintenance and upkeep of their properties, while ensuring guaranteed rental incomes. Moreover, OYO empowers home owners with its transformation capabilities and OYO’s best in class real estate property management system, that helps owners improve their occupancy and yield, combined with Yahoo’s marketing and distribution network to attract more customers.

Launched in 2013, when Ritesh Agarwal (CEO), was 19 years old, OYO Hotels and Homes has brought about a digital revolution in the Hotel and Homes business. OYO has grown rapidly all over the world and today has over 13000+ properties, across 10 countries (including Japan) and 500+ cities. After a successful launch of this rental housing product in India, popularly knowns as OYO Living, now rechristened to OYO LIFE in Japan, is now all set to offer a whole new experience to those looking for a home away from home in Japan.

“With the launch of OYO LIFE, we are all set to leverage OYO’s hospitality experience to offer a first of its kind, end to end fully managed housing experience. I look forward to leveraging our partnership with Yahoo! Japan and OYO's expertise from across the world to scale OYO LIFE, a product built in Japan for Japanese customers. We are delighted to have Yahoo! Japan's support as we bring OYO LIFE to Japan, with pre-registration now available for stays starting March,” added, Hiro Katsuse, newly appointed CEO of OYO Technology & Hospitality Company, Japan.

About OYO:

OYO is South Asia’s largest and the world’s fastest growing chain of hotels, homes & spaces! With footprints in more than 500 cities across 10 countries - India, China, Malaysia, Nepal, the UK, UAE, KSA Indonesia, the Philippines and more recently Japan. With over 13,000 franchised or leased hotels in its chain and over 6000 homes. OYO is backed by leading investors, including the SoftBank Group, Greenoaks Capital, Sequoia India, Lightspeed India, Hero Enterprise and China Lodging Group. For more information, log on to https://www.oyorooms.com/