OYO buys Direct Booker, a company based in Europe, for $5.5 million

Hotel chain OYO has announced its acquisition of European vacation rental provider Direct Booker for $5.5 million to strengthen its presence in foreign markets. The move comes amid the reopening of outbound travel and tourism with the flattening of the COVID wave in those regions. OYO said Direct Booker has more than 3,200 households and has served 2 million customers to date.

OYO already owns and operates brands such as Belvilla (Belvilla by OYO), DanCenter, Traum Ferienwohnungen and others in Europe. Direct Booker's inventory will be available on Belvilla.com (Belvilla by OYO) and eventually on its other platforms.

     

This acquisition will strengthen OYO's presence in Europe in general and in Croatia in particular, where it already has almost 1,800 holiday homes on its Belvilla platform and more than 7,000 houses on its Dream Apartments platform.

OYO recently announced its intention to actively pursue bolt-on acquisitions, particularly in the European market, as a lever for strategic growth. OYO already has a strong presence in the Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium, Germany, Austria etc.

“Homes remain an important strategic segment for OYO. With our state-of-the-art operating system, dynamic pricing and other data science capabilities, we've been able to add value to our 140,000+ home businesses,” said Ankit Tandon, OYO Global Chief Commercial Officer. Officer who spearheaded this acquisition.

"I am confident that OYO's advanced technology, distribution systems and data science will add value to its current 3,200 homes and strengthen our combined growth in Europe." We remain focused on bringing depth to Europe and providing our customers with the very best holiday home experiences.”

“We are excited to partner with a global travel technology company like OYO. We firmly believe that by bringing our technologies and expertise together, this partnership will have a positive impact on the Croatian tourism economy and further drive demand from existing travel platforms. OYO is widespread Europe “Being part of the OYO network will also increase the visibility of the houses listed on our platform, especially in Scandinavia, Benelux and the neighboring countries. The next two months are going to be really exciting as we work together to grow our business," said Nino Dubretic, CEO and co-founder of Direct Booker.

In the meantime, OYO is heading towards an initial public offering (IPO) to raise nearly $1.2 billion in the public markets, for which it has yet to receive SEBI listing. As previously reported by BT, the company has lowered its valuation target for its forthcoming IPO due to the ongoing macroeconomic crisis stemming from the Russo-Ukrainian war. The company recently raised $9.6 billion in funds.

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