Signing deals with 50 hotels in the country for more than 3,000 rooms across seven cities, Oyo enters the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. 

However, these properties will be operated under the franchise model with full inventory control similar to other markets like India and China. 

"We are committed to creating quality, affordable living spaces, and thousands of jobs for the young people of Saudi Arabia. It has been our long-standing belief that provided with the right direction and tools, smaller assets can also generate positive returns," said Ritesh Agarwal, OYO Hotels & Homes Group CEO and Founder. 

The expansion will not only benefit Oyo but also the working professionals of Saudi Arabia as the company looks to create over 5,000 jobs by 2020. Out of which it will employ over 300 local citizens by end of 2019.

Oyo also aims to train Saudi graduates in hotel management and hence, plans to set up two OYO Skill Institutes, one in Riyadh and another in Jeddah.  

SAGIA Governor, Ibrahim bin Abdul Rahman Al-Omar also shared that Oyo obtained its foreign investment license from Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA) a few months ago and plans to invest significantly in Saudi Arabia, and expand to over 17 cities across 6 provinces by 2020. 

The Hospitality chain OYO Hotels and Homes has also signed MoU with the Public Investment Fund, Saudi Arabia and has attested to the business potential it observes in the market there. 

Started in 2011 in India, Oyo today has touched great heights and has expanded in different parts of the world. With this launch, it now operates in nine countries, namely, India, Nepal, China, Malaysia, Indonesia, the UAE, the UK, Philippines, and Saudi Arabia.

Currently, Oyo boasts to have 13,000 franchised or leased hotels and over 6,000 homes as a part of its network as of now. But now it has to further maximize the opportunity emerging in the hospitality ecosystem and create infrastructure for asset owners to grow and run successful businesses. It has to create unique yet uniform strategies to cater to the diverse markets it now operates in. Also, it has to stay ahead of the curve as it competes with many new emerging brands in the space of hospitality business and one of the biggest competitors, Airbnb.