OYO has launched a number of new revenue management features, including a cancellation predictor.
The Cancellation Prediction Engine calculates the probability of every customer who has booked at a particular hotel “actually turning up to check in”.
The company said that the prediction was based on the booking characteristics, customer profiles and historical trends of the property.
The final output indicated the number of rooms that may end in no-shows or cancellations on a real-time basis and operated in sync with OYO’s inventory management system to automatically open rooms based on the predicted numbers of no shows or cancellations.
Equally, the engine will close rooms if the risk of overbooking increases, so that no guests need to be shifted to alternative accommodation.
“The current pandemic has created an oversupplied hotel ecosystem owing to the lower-than-usual demand from guests and gradual increase in availability of properties, so it is more important than ever that OYO responds with agility to help our independent hoteliers capture demand and maximise occupancy and revpar,” said Rishabh Gupta, head of OYO UK and Europe.
“OYO’s revenue management systems are based on data, technology and expertise; and here, we’ve also listened to partner feedback to introduce tools that are not only effective, but also give our partners greater input where they’ve told us they want it.”
For the full month of August, OYO achieved nationwide occupancy levels of 63.4% across open rooms within its portfolio in the UK. During this same period, STR tracked weekly occupancy rates of between 45% and 57% for the UK.
During September, OYO expects to make a minimum of 400 further rooms available as more hotels reopen and new partner hotels are added to the portfolio.