Hospitality chain OYO has acquired Europe-based vacation home firm Direct Booker for $5.5 million.
The acquisition will strengthen OYO’s presence in Europe and especially in Croatia, where it already has around 1,800 vacation homes on its Belvilla platform and more than 7,000 homes on the TrumFerienwohnungen platform, the company said in a statement.
The company also added that the Direct booker will be available on Belvilla.com (Belvilla by Oyo) and its other platforms over time.
“Homes continue to be an important strategic segment for Oyo and its cutting edge technology, distribution systems and data sciences will add more value to Direct Booker’s current 3,200 homes and enhance collective growth in Europe. We continue to focus on going deep in Europe and delivering the best Vacation Home experiences to our customers”, said, Ankit Tandon, Global Chief Business Officer, Oyo.
Ritesh Agarwal‘s Oyo expanded into Europe in 2019 with the purchase of Amsterdam-based vacation rental firm Leisure Group. OYO is already present in the continent including the Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium, Germany and Austria.
“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”, said, Nino Dubretic, CEO & co-founder of Direct Booker.
“Being a part of Oyo’s network will also increase visibility for the homes listed on Direct Booker platform, especially across Scandinavian, Benelux and surrounding countries”, he added.
The Europe-based Direct Booker’s portfolio includes Vacation Rental Solutions, Rental Management, Rental Booking, Rental Software and Rental Franchise.
It boasts of over 3,200 homes and has served 20 lakh customers till date.
About OYO
OYO is a global platform that aims to empower entrepreneurs and small businesses with hotels and homes by providing full-stack technology products and services that aims to increase revenue and ease operations; bringing easy-to-book, affordable, and trusted accommodation to customers around the world.
OYO offers 40+ integrated products and solutions to patrons who operate over 157K hotel and home storefronts in more than 35 countries including India, Europe, and Southeast Asia. OYO was founded by 27-year-old Ritesh Agarwal, the first Asian resident to be accepted to the Thiel Fellowship (started by Paypal founder Peter Thiel). OYO operates a unique business model that helps its patrons transform fragmented, unbranded and underutilized hospitality assets into branded, digitally-enabled storefronts with higher revenue generation potential and provides its customers with access to a broad range of high-quality storefronts at compelling price points.
Owners and operators of over 157K storefronts use the OYO platform to manage all mission-critical aspects of their business operations. OYO’s comprehensive, full-stack technology suite integrates more than 40 products and services across digital sign-up and onboarding, revenue management, daily business management and D2C stacks into two flagship patron applications, Co-OYO and OYO OS.
About Direct Booker
Direct Booker – World’s TOP 10 Vacation Rental Company & Technology Developer. A story of a local vacation rental agency becoming a globally recognizable award-winning brand. The agency started from scratch 11 years ago and today they manage more than 8000 properties. Until now they had 500k+ bookings and they brought more than 1,2 mil. Satisfied guests. Business Model helps Homeowners reach better results with their Rentals in The Short Term Vacation Rental Industry.
The business model relies on in-house technology development, a Channel Manager (CM) & Vacation Rental Software (VRS) preferred by the world’s largest OTAs (Airbnb, Booking.com, Expedia, etc. ) called Booker Tools. RECOGNITION & AWARDS: – Expedia listed our software Booker Tools as No.1 Connectivity Partner for 2020 – RentalsUnited.com listed Direct Booker in Top 10 Property Management agencies in the world in 2021 – Booking.com named our software Booker Tools as Premier Connectivity Partner for 2021.
