Oravel Stays Ltd, which owns and operates hospitality unicorn Oyo Hotels and Homes, on Monday said it has acquired Direct Booker for $5.5 million (around Rs 40 crore) to strengthen its presence in Europe.
Direct Booker manages over 3,200 vacation homes in Croatia.
The acquisition aims to strengthen Oyo's footprint in Europe broadly and Croatia specifically, where it has nearly 1,800 vacation homes on its Belvilla platform and over 7,000 homes on its Traum Ferienwohnungen platform, the company said in a statement.
Founded in 2010 by Nikola Grubelic and Nino Dubretic, Direct Booker is a vacation home management with a presence in Dubrovnik, a key tourist destination in Croatia.
The company works as one of ‘Airbnb alternatives’ and runs a partner network of apartments and villas to handle bookings.
Croatia-based Direct Booker has a network of over homeowners and 8,000 properties spread across eleven countries in Europe, it said in a statement.
The deal marks Oyo’s inorganic growth in European markets, the company currently has presence in The Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium, Germany, and Austria among other regions.
The inventory of Direct Booker will be available on Belvilla.com (Belvilla by OYO) and overtime on its other platforms, it added.
“Homes continue to be an important strategic segment for OYO. With our leading operating system, dynamic pricing capability and other data science enabled features, we have been able to add value to our over 140,000 Home Storefronts 1 globally”, said Ankit Tandon, Global Chief Business Officer, OYO.
He added, “We continue to focus on going deep in Europe and delivering the best Vacation Home experiences to our customers.”
"We strongly believe that by merging our technologies and expertise, this partnership will positively impact the Croatian tourism economy, further driving demand through Oyo's existing platforms spread across Europe," said Nino Dubretic, CEO and Co-Founder of Direct Booker.
Being a part of Oyo's network will also increase visibility for the homes listed on the Direct Booker platform, especially across Scandinavian, Benelux and surrounding countries, Dubretic added.
Oyo has filed draft papers with the capital markets regulator for the company’s Rs 8,430-crore IPO. The company now reportedly plans to cut down its IPO size in view of current market conditions. The offer for sale has been dropped, and the company will raise a smaller amount at a lower valuation.
