Global travel technology company OYO announced that it has partnered with Stripe, a global financial infrastructure platform for businesses, to ease the payment experience for its customers and hotel owners in the US. The integration will provide hotel owners with a flexible and seamless solution for in-person payments with Stripe Terminal at their hotels. OYO hotels in the US will also be enabled with real-time payouts through Instant Payouts with Stripe, which will improve their cash flow.

With Instant Payouts, OYO can allow hotel owners on their platform to access their balances immediately following a successful charge. Instant Payouts are available at any day or time, including weekends and holidays, and funds typically settle in the associated bank account within 30 minutes.

In addition, the collaboration will equip OYO hotels in the US with a secure online payments platform for guests to make bookings. With robust fraud protection mechanisms in place to safeguard against online fraudulent activities, hotel owners will see a reduction in the overall processing charges, minimizing chargeback costs.

OYO seeks to enable higher authorization rates with the Stripe integration as lower payment success rates result in customers dropping off, directly impacting revenue. The company anticipates increased success rate which will translate into faster and more efficient bookings and check-ins, allowing guests to focus on enjoying their stay without unnecessary delays.

Talking about the partnership, Gautam Swaroop, CEO OYO International said, “Today’s consumers are used to lightning fast and smooth search and transaction experience. By teaming up with Stripe, we will simplify and quicken the payment process, ensuring a smooth and hassle-free experience for our customers as well as hotel partners. With Stripe, OYO will offer secure online transactions and its low-cost payment infrastructure will streamline financial operations so that we can allocate resources more efficiently, ultimately providing guests with better value and services.”

Nikhil Heda, Head of Business Development, OYO USA added, “The integration with Stripe will reduce the overall transaction cost for OYO and help in better fraud detection mechanisms. Stripe's robust security measures and sophisticated algorithms will work in tandem with OYO's existing protocols to create a fortified defense against potential threats, instilling confidence and trust in every transaction.”

OYO offers hotels access to a large base of regular customers through its app and website, and lists hotels on multiple Online Travel Agents (OTAs) to boost booking demand and revenue. OYO’s best-in-class Artificial Intelligence-enabled pricing software automatically drives the best booking prices across all channels, based on room type, seasonality and other factors, therefore, enabling such an increase in online revenues.

OYO has started offering hotels the flexibility of not having to invest heavily in redoing the hotel to join the OYO platform, something that other budget hotel chains insist on. Therefore, the initial investment to join OYO is minimal. It has been focusing instead on standardizing service led components such as customer support and booking experience.

The company helps ensure great experience for customers, with ease of search and a quick booking experience, highly competitive room prices as per market demand patterns, automated tools such as Artificial Intelligence powered chatbots to quickly resolve customer queries, loyalty programs and easy refund, if needed.

Earlier this year OYO said that it is planning to add over 100 hotels in the US. The company will focus on adding more hotels in the states of Oregon, Washington, Texas, Oklahoma, Georgia and Florida. Texas continues to be the largest and fastest growing market for OYO in the US, while it also has a sizable concentration of hotels in Oregon, South and North Carolina, Florida & Georgia.

The company also achieved a 48% growth in revenue from bookings on its own platform, such as the app, website, mobile web and call centers in Q4 2022 vs same period in 2021. OYO’s app saw the highest growth with a 99% surge in revenue from bookings in Q4 2022 vs same period in 2021. The company had earlier disclosed that its app is the second most downloaded travel app with over 100 million downloads globally.

OYO has presence in over 35 countries globally. It owns a vacations home business in EU called OVH (OYO Vacation Homes) which operates legacy brands such as DanCenter, Belvilla & Traum-Ferienwohnungen.