Alleging that certain changes in the policy of OYO, a hotel chain are causing losses for hotel owners, Kerala Hotel and Restaurant Association (KHRA) has called for a strike against OYO for two days starting from Wednesday. About 67 hotels in Kochi associated with OYO will participate in the strike.

Bookings cannot be made in these hotels through OYO. Hotel owners will stage a protest in front of the Edapally office of OYO on June 26.

According to members of the Kerala Hotel and Restaurant Association (KHRA), OYO is making the hotel owners bear the charge of tariff reductions given to customers.

“Earlier OYO would bear the cost of the reduction that they offered for customers on original tariff amount. We used to get our original tariffs, though they offered discount. But now, since last December, OYO has forced hotel owners to bear this discount. They offer rooms sometimes giving more than half the rate as discount,” Committee chairman Muhammad Rameez K told TNM.

As per officials of KHRA, the strike has been structured in a way to ensure it does not cause hindrance to customers. “We will not stop customers who have already booked rooms. It is just that we will not take any booking through OYO in the coming two days, but the hotels will continue to take direct bookings,” said Rameez.

Hotel owners have also raised allegations that OYO takes around 30 days to transfer money to the hotels after a booking is made by a customer. “The worst thing is that even though many of us want to quit from OYO, it is not quite easy. When we get into contract, they will take control of all the online contacts of the hotels like even the contact number we provide in Google. And if we ever want to exit the contract, it will require at least 90 days for them to complete the process and give back the online credentials of the hotel back to the owners. So no booking could be made through online platforms in these three months and the hotel owner will suffer a huge setback” alleges Rameez.

Meanwhile, spokesperson of OYO told TNM that the company will move legally if hotels disrupted the agreement. “Most of the boycott claims are being made by small vested interest groups with no property franchised with or leased to OYO Hotels. As franchisors, we continue to engage with our franchisee hotel owners on a one-to-one basis to resolve issues and in case we don’t reach a mutually acceptable solution, we can part ways amicably,” said the OYO spokesperson.