The company landed in a soup after its advertisement, published in a Hindi news daily, mentioned that “God is everywhere, so is OYO”
Many users took to social media platform X to express their displeasure, trended “#BoyccottOYO” on X, and asked the company to apologise
Reacting to the row, OYO issued a statement saying that the intention of the ad was to promote religious tourism in India and not to hurt any religious sentiment
Hospitality giant OYO
has issued a clarification after one of its advertisements triggered an online controversy for allegedly hurting religious sentiments.
The company landed in a soup after its advertisement, published in a Hindi news daily, mentioned that “God is everywhere, so is OYO”. Reacting to the promotional campaign, many users took to social media platform X to express their displeasure and asked the company to apologise.
The hashtag “BoycottOYO” also trended on the social media platform, with one user saying, “… Oyo will have to apologize… Comparing God with Oyo is wrong… Do not remain silent even now, if you do not raise your voice now then when will you raise your voice…”.
Reacting to the row, OYO issued a statement on X saying that the intention of the ad was to promote religious tourism in India and not to hurt religious sentiments.
“We have immense respect for the diverse faiths & beliefs of our country and celebrate India’s rich spiritual traditions. As more Indians embrace spiritual tourism, we are dedicated to enhancing this sacred experience – and that is what we wanted to highlight through our print ad today…,” said OYO in a post on X.
The company also said that it plans to add 500 more hotels across 12 “major” pilgrimage destinations by 2025-end.
Notably, this is not the first time that OYO has landed in a controversy. In 2021, the company came under fire after an OYO hotel denied reservation to a customer from the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir. The company later apologised for the same.
Prior to that in December 2020, the hospitality giant invited the ire of netizens after a group was left stranded in Puducherry after they realised that the OYO hotel they had booked did not exist at all.
The row comes at a time when OYO has revamped its brand positioning to a “family friendly” chain. Recently, the company introduced a new policy, which allows partner hotels in some regions to deny accommodation to unmarried couples.
Founded in 2012 by Ritesh Agarwal, OYO is a hospitality services company which provides affordable accommodation spaces to customers around the world. It claims to offer more than 40 integrated products and solutions in more than 35 countries, including India, Europe, and Southeast Asia.
Last week, the travel tech major said that it is planning to invest $10 Mn to shore up the digital assets of recently-bought G6 Hospitality. Earlier this month, the company also announced plans to invest INR 448 Cr in the UK over the next three years.
On the financial front, OYO’s profit after tax (PAT) jumped nearly 6X to INR 166 Cr in the third quarter (Q3) of the fiscal year 2024-25 (FY25) from INR 25 Cr in the year-ago period. Meanwhile, revenue zoomed 31% to INR 1,695 Cr during the quarter under review from INR 1,296 Cr in Q3 FY24.
