By Express News Service

KOCHI: As the small scale hotel owners began their protest against OYO for its regressive policies, Kerala Hotel & Restaurant Association (KHRA) has announced the launch of a parallel app to compete with the hotel giant.

“Oyo’s unfair trade practices are completely illegal. If the benefit of the hefty commission charged by Oyo passes on to the customer, the deal becomes very attractive. We are planning to execute it through the new app,” said T J Manoharan, district secretary of KHRA, while inaugurating the two-day-long strike on Wednesday.

The strike started with a procession with 100 hoteliers from Pathadipalam Metro station to the Oyo’s office at Edappally. The protesters symbolically broke tabs which were installed with Oyo property management app in front of the Oyo office.

Though many hoteliers were planning to hand over the withdrawal notice to Oyo as per the agreement, the company has refused to accept it, said KHRA office bearers. The hotel owners have also decided to set the booking in their base rate from June 28.

“As Oyo has once again refused to discuss and settle things amicably, we shall only accept bookings at our minimum price from June 28,” said Azeez Moosa, KHRA president. Oyo took vengeance by removing all hotels which took part in the protest from the platform.

Oyo protest committee is also engaged in discussions with legal experts to counter the action from the hotel chain. “We are in a wait and watch approach now. If they initiate legal action against the hotel owners, we will do our best to counter their moves. The committee is awaiting a response from Oyo on our demands,” said protest committee chairman Muhammad Rameez.

OYO reiterates legal action

Kochi: Amidst KHRA protest, Oyo reiterated its stance of legal action against the hotel owners who, the company alleges disrupted their business. “The company has recently received an injunction from the Honourable High Court of Delhi which prevents individuals and vested interest groups from disrupting business operations of Oyo hotels. We assure full support of the law in providing the freedom to Oyo hotels to conduct business as usual,” stated the Oyo’s press release. Apart from that, Oyo has announced new expansion plans in the state with an investment of C100 crore towards capital expenditure, infrastructure and talent in the state. The company also intends to open its second Skill Institute in Kerala for training and development of hospitality professionals.