Oyo Rooms, one of the hotel industry's fastest-growing companies by room count, has let go of about 600 employees in China, or 5 percent of its workforce, and 1,200 in India, about 12 percent, and plans to shed another 1,200 jobs in India in the coming months, according to Bloomberg.
The layoffs come on the heels of allegations that the company charges hotels extra fees, does not pay hoteliers the full amounts they are owed and that hotels that have left the Oyo system still are included in its room count, per a New York Times report in early January. There also have been owner complaints about Oyo's pricing practices, alleging some daily rates have been lowered to unsustainable levels.
The India-based hotel company has received $3.2 billion in venture and debt financing over 15 funding rounds, according to Crunchbase, with Japan-based SoftBank leading the investments. Oyo has been valued at as much as $10 billion this past July.
The layoffs have not stopped the company from making new executive appointments. Oyo recently named Rishabh Gupta as head of the company's U.K. business, and Raj Kamal as COO of Oyo's Vacation Homes business in the U.K. and Europe. These appointments follow additional executive changes made in early December.
Oyo's CEO Ritesh Agarwal was among BTN's 2019 25 Most Influential individuals in business travel.