Their hotel listings are being hijacked by Softbank-backed hotel chain OYO Hotels & Homes, despite the fact that budget hotels are paying thousands of rupees a month for potential leads.
Small budget hotels and chains seeking business leads from search service Just Dial could be in for a rude shock. Their hotel listings are being hijacked by Softbank-backed hotel chain OYO Hotels & Homes, despite the fact that budget hotels are paying thousands of rupees a month for potential leads.
Sumer Singh, the founder of Pune-based Ornate Hospitality Services, learned this first hand. Operating four properties (in Baner, Shivajinagar, Hinjewadi and Wakad), Singh was surprised that there were no leads coming from Just Dial for his hotels since over a month now.
Curious, he searched and sought hotel details in Baner area on his mobile phone and was shocked to see the list shared in a text message by the Just Dial platform.
"All I got was a list of hotels being operated by OYO. There was no mention of my hotel and I'm paying Rs 7,000 every month for leads from Just Dial," said Singh, who had a tie-up with OYO.
But Singh terminated his contract a few months ago as the Ritesh Agarwal-promoted hotel chain, third largest in the world terms of room count, started swaying on the commercial terms and defaulted on monthly (lease rental) payments.
Singh called up Just Dial posing as a prospective customer, and the executive proactively asked him if she could transfer the call to an OYO representative for a booking. She added that OYO was running a discount offer on hotel bookings.
Singh then disclosed his identity as owner of the hotels in Pune area who was availing Just Dial's paid services for lead generation. "Despite my hotels showing in their database, the customer care executive had no answer why they were not in the list being shared with potential customers. She kept saying she could transfer my call to her senior manager," said Singh.
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Just Dial could not be reached for a comment on the approach to business and the rationale behind it.
Responding to DNA, a spokesperson for OYO Hotels & Homes said the alleged 'hijacking assertion' is baseless and incorrect.
"Just like any other organisation, OYO subscribes to paid partnerships, marketing and promotion offers to purchase a certain number of preferred slots that receive prominent placement in search engine results from time to time. The current commercial arrangement with Just Dial ensures a small and limited number of slots, depending on a particular search word and criteria, are prominently listed for a certain time period. The rest of the listings are organic and are a reflection of organic data-driven, impartial, algorithm-based ordering/aggregation of search results. The fact that additional OYO hotels along with those of other brands appear on a page attests to its service excellence and merit in a meeting of either popularity (high ratings), pricing, location or any other such parameter as listed," he said.
According to Singh, when confronted last week, a local Just Dial representative said they were like a billboard and would promote the highest bidder on their platform.
‘Misusing Might’
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| A local Just Dial representative said they were like a billboard and would promote the highest bidder on their platform, according to Singh |
| ‘OYO is misusing its financial might to control marketing channels used by small hotel operators. There’s no return on this investment,’ Singh said |
"OYO is misusing its financial might to control marketing channels used by small hotel operators. There is no reason for continuing with Just Dial. I have written to their local office to terminate my contract," said Singh adding that this could be happening for other hotels across markets as well.
To check the hotelier's claim, this correspondent searched for hotels in Mumbai's Goregaon area on Just Dial's desktop website, the listings on the first page were dominated by OYO-linked hotels. This established the fact that online search platforms are only throwing up results based on who is paying them the most, not on consumer ratings.
Industry experts say most small and budget hotel operators do not have the financial resources to create a standalone hotel website that can also enable transactions. Given the restricted means, such hotels either join the likes of OYO or tie-up with online travel agencies (OTAs) to build visibility in the market and attract bookings for their hotels.
"This is a clear case of abusing one's dominant position and flexing financial muscle. This is just one of the examples of unethical business practices by the OYO management. While a lot of partner asset owners are already suffering, OYO is playing mischief with those who've already terminated their association and trying to do business on their own," said a top hotel industry executive, requesting not to be identified.
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