Covid-19: Oyo informs its vendors and partners about possible payment disruption

Online hospitality firm Oyo has sent a letter to its vendors and partners stating that with the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and the nationwide lockdown to counter, there are possibilities of disruptions in its payment cycle.

As the hospitality industry is majorly dependent on travel and tourism, the lockdown has badly hurt the company’s revenues, operations, and cash flows.

While Oyo is trying to seek relevant ministries, state governments, and local authorities to offer some of its properties for pay per use quarantine facilities at a reasonable price, the vendors should also try to cooperate and understand their situation, added the letter quoted in an Et report.

However, the company’s vendors deemed the letter baseless. The report quoted an Oyo partner as saying that payments by Oyo were anyways disrupted and that this was just another publicity stunt by the company. 

Responding to our queries, an Oyo spokesperson said that the letter had been quoted out of context. 

"This was an internal email, one among the many we are sending to asset owners and vendors every day informing them about the precautions to be undertaken, any changes in processes given the nationwide lockdown," the spokesperson said.

This development comes a few days after Oyo had offered to the Delhi government its 1000-plus hotels in the state for self-quarantine. The company has reached out to the health departments of other state governments as well.

Separately, Oyo has offered its hotels for free to doctors, nurses and other medical first responders who are helping to fight against the novel coronavirus in the US. 

The Gurugram-based company further stated that it is setting up a central helpline number to ensure that it is taking requests from people as well as all state governments and relevant authorities.

Oyo’s portfolio includes about 43,000 hotels with over 1 million rooms and 130,000 vacation homes around the world.