A HOST OF TROUBLES

OYO’s Ritesh Agarwal had much to contend with: conflict with partners, the fallout from rapid geographical expansion, and internal restructuring. Then came a pandemic, giving the founder of one of India’s most-valued startups his most difficult battle yet.

- ARNIKA THAKUR AND DEBOJYOTI GHOSH

THE atmosphere in the OYO Hotels & Homes office in Gurugram, Haryana, was somewhat tense when Fortune India visited on March 16. This was a week before Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a 21-day national lockdown to contain the spread of Covid-19 (novel Coronavirus) in India. Mask-wearing employees could be seen sanitising their hands as the first casualty from the pandemic had already been reported in the country—a 76-year-old man who had returned from Saudi Arabia. The confirmed case count by March 15 had crossed 100. And, while domestic travel was still on, foreign travel had plunged after restrictions were imposed by most countries.

However, amidst the brewing chaos, Ritesh Agarwal, founder and CEO, OYO Hotels & Homes, appeared relatively calm. The company had made cancellations easy for its customers, he said. Alternatively, OYO was giving travellers credits that could be used to rebook later. “Fundamentally, we can use this time to build technologies and automation in a manner which ensures that when the world comes back, we are at the leading edge of scaling in the market,” Agarwal told Fortune India. Having expanded significantly last year, he and his team were monitoring the situation in 80 countries including India, the U.S., Japan and those in Europe, the U.K., West Asia, and Southeast Asia, across which OYO runs over 43,000 hotels with more than a million rooms. This is apart from the 130,000 homes it has around the world under its OYO Home, Belvilla, Danland, DanCenter, and Germany-based Traum-Ferienwohnungen brands.