Next time, if you wish to rent an OYO room, you may well be on the radar of the state government and law enforcement agencies, as the hospitality company is planning to digitise its guest check-ins and other details and share the same with the state authorities.
Claiming to be the first in the hospitality sector to digitise the records of guest entry and departure, the OYO Chief Executive Officer, South Asia, Aditya Ghosh said at an event organised by the Confederation of Indian Industries in Kolkata on January 14 that OYO would be happy to make its platform more open to all the state governments, the Business Standard reported.
The move, he said, will facilitate transparency and keep the state governments and law agencies updated on who is staying in the OYO rooms. The hotel chain's South Asia chief has stated that the state governments in Haryana, Rajasthan and Telangana have already accepted the OYO proposal and the company has put in place a digital register in its Jaipur rooms whereas a pilot project is being run in Haryana and Telangana.
Ghosh said that the digital records of guest arrival and departure will prove to be more efficient than the manual register and eliminate the otherwise usual errors.
He added that the digitisation would also be of great help to the state governments and agencies and help them monitor on who is visiting OYO rooms and hotels.
"It will streamline the entire system," Ghosh said.
In order to ensure seamless sharing of guest records, the hotel manager/receptionists would be required to share the name/photographs of the guests who checked in at the OYO room with the government authorities.
Currently, India is the second biggest market in the global hospitality chain next to China. With over 1.5 lakh rooms present across 180 Indian cities and an addition of more than 50,000 rooms every year, the OYO has also contributed immensely to the hospitality economy of the country.
The company is planning to double its room keys from the current 0.45 million rooms globally to 1 million which could make it the world's largest hospitality chain.
For the global expansion plans, the OYO is planning to further hire technology workforce to cater to its demands across various verticals in India and overseas.
