OYO acquires Danish data science firm Danamica

BOOMING hospitality business OYO Hotels & Homes has acquired Danish firm Danamica for an undisclosed sum.

The Copenhagen-based data science platform is specialised in dynamic pricing, the Rakesh Agarwal-founded company said on Monday (2).

The latest acquisition has come a month after the India-based company announced its commitment to invest €300 million in the vacation homes business in Europe.

With the latest acquisition, OYO is expected to drive top-line growth by leveraging dynamic pricing across all its brands.

The Copenhagen-based firm’s technology innovations will benefit OYO’s hospitality business, as well as users who want to book vacation homes at a reasonable price.

OYO Hotels & Homes Chief Strategy Officer Maninder Gulati said: “We are delighted to announce our acquisition of Danamica, a Europe-based, machine-learning and business intelligence company specialised in dynamic pricing, which will help us be more accurate with pricing, leading to higher efficiency and yield for our real estate owners and value for money for our millions of global guests — both everyday travellers and city dwellers — who choose OYO vacation homes as their abode.”

Data sciences across pricing, artificial intelligence, and imaging sciences have been a cornerstone of OYO’s proprietary revenue enhancement technology. It is also a huge missing piece in the way traditional vacation rentals industry is run. Danamica has built expertise in these areas to support the businesses.

It has built a valuable IP that analyses many years of data and pricing trends, and provides logical and scientific recommendations, which will help us scale our vacation and urban homes business across Europe and other parts of the world, Gulati said.

This is OYO’s second acquisition in Europe this year after Amsterdam-based holiday rental firm Leisure Group.

Indian business OYO has an international presence with its hotels and homes business spread across the Indian subcontinent, China, South-East Asia, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Europe, and the US, among others.

Founded in 2013, OYO’s portfolio comprises more than 23,000 hotels and over 125,000 vacation homes in 800 cities across 80 countries.

OYO does not build or own hotels. It approaches independent hotel owners and offers to invest in their properties to improve their business. Thus, the hotels are re-branded as OYO Rooms.

The Indian business is responsible for upgrading, reshaping, and altering the hotel rooms to improve facilities in a bid to attract more customers and ultimately, improve the hotel business significantly.

It also invests with owners to transform the property itself, improving the infrastructure and the look and feel of the hotel.