It was only when Ritesh Agarwal’s father landed up in his college in Delhi did the family realise he had dropped out of college. Yes, Ritesh had attended college just for a few days. And yes, he was too busy becoming an entrepreneur to be confined to the classroom. “I felt like I was losing time by going to college when I could have been building a great company. So, I dropped out,” the 21-year-old tells t2.
At 19, he was selected for the prestigious “20 under 20” Thiel Fellowship given to those pursuing innovative ideas as an alternative to college. The two-year-programme comes with $100,000 and mentorship from tech entrepreneurs. “The fellowship is about entrepreneurship and lifestyle changes as both go hand in hand.”
Entrepreneur he did become with the start-up OYO Rooms, a branded network of hotels spread across India, offering standardised rooms. The journey started with one property in Gurgaon (which is also the company’s HQ) in May 2013 and OYO now has over 3,000 properties in over 125 destinations across India.
With OYO, you can download the app and look for hotels across the country or wherever you are. And OYO promises that every check-in comes with standardised service — complimentary breakfast, an AC room with TV, clean linen, Wi-fi, clean washrooms and a toiletries kit. And believe it or not, OYO’s budget stays range upwards of Rs 999 while the midscale rooms are priced between Rs 1,600 and Rs 4,000.
Still not impressed? Well, in August, Ritesh’s brainchild raised $100m from SoftBank.Now let Ritesh Agarwal tell you all about his start-up.
Which is a bigger issue in India — discovering budget hotels or predicting the quality of service?
Definitely predictability because finding hotels is easy but the experiences faced by consumers at these hotels, before the existence of OYO, were varied and rather unpleasant. Earlier, when you booked a room in the budget category, you left availability of basic amenities like clean sheets, functional electric sockets and so on, to chance. A few times, if you were lucky, you ended up in a great room while at times your stay turned out nightmarish. It was disheartening to see that the Indian hospitality industry didn’t have any minimum standard of predictability. This problem has existed for ages and with OYO we are trying to solve that.
What was the Eureka moment for OYO?
When I was 17, I travelled extensively and I stayed in over 150 bed-and-breakfasts, guest houses and hotels. More often than not my experiences at these places were far from satisfactory. This bothered me and I realised there was great trust deficiency among consumers. When booking a room at a budget hotel, the customer was clueless as to what he would get till the time he entered his hotel room. My brushes with unpredictability when staying at budget hotels made me found OYO.
The challenge in the beginning was to get the right team. However, once we had a team in place, solving this major problem by innovating continuously has been super exciting.
Compared to OYO Rooms, what has been the response like to OYO Premium?
OYO Premium provides consumers with aspirational experience at affordable prices. The Premium segment is priced higher than the OYO Rooms, only by 20-40 per cent. The properties have been met with great response. Many times, customers choose Premium over Rooms depending on the location and their needs.
How do you make a property go from zero to full occupancy?
We aggregate the hotel properties and put them on powerful sales channels. For individual hotel owners, selling properties via various channels (search engine optimisation, online travel agencies, corporate, online and offline marketing and so on) is time-consuming and also a large cost is involved. Moreover, all hotels do not have the expertise and trained team members to do this. As OYO works at a mass level, our model is highly effective. We are able to aggregate the sales channels better than what individual properties can, at a lower cost. Hence, properties see a large gain in occupancy in the first few months of being listed with OYO.
What are your plans for Bengal?
We are already present in Calcutta, Siliguri and Darjeeling. OYO will soon launch in large towns such as Durgapur and Asansol as well as weekend getaways such as Mandarmani. Our aim is to be present in all leisure and industrial hubs of the state by the end of the year. We plan to have 150 OYO properties in and around Calcutta, which is an extremely important market for us. The city serves as a transit gateway to the east; it has one of the busiest railway stations in the country, and is a business, leisure and arts and culture hub.
You are from the east...
I was raised in a middle-class family in Rayagada (Odisha). My childhood was similar to any small-town kid.... I was a kid with big dreams. I was always very sure that I wanted to be an entrepreneur. I was good at studies and played sports. Moreover, I was deeply interested in the world of codes. I started taking coding lessons at the age 10.
Your message for young entrepreneurs?
Don’t be scared to be different. The crazier your idea is, the more doable it is. Also, it’s very important to be perseverant. A lot of times you will face failure, but if you are committed, nothing can come in your way. In the end, the biggest risk is not taking any risks.
Finally, how do you plan to use the $100m raised recently from SoftBank?
We will use the funds to deliver exceptional customer experience through constant innovation… for expansion and to hire the best talent.
Mathures Paul
I want to be an entrepreneur because.... Tell t2@abp.in
