How would you increase retention for Oyo Rooms?

User want to book a nice hotel in the budget he/she has
Upon arrival at the Hotel, there should be a smooth checkin
The stay experience should be standard across all the Oyo properties
User would like to have basic amenities like Wi-Fi, TV, Hot water, Restaurant at site (if included in the amenities) etc.
User would check-out from the Hotel

Customer Journey ->

Search for a Hotel

Book the Hotel/Cancel post booking

Check in to the Hotel

Stay at the Hotel

Check out from the Hotel and post check out activities

JTBD

Find an interesting Hotel at the target city based on various criteria like location, amenities, reviews etc.

Book/Pay for the Hotel

Cancel the Hotel in case of cancellation with expected penalties

Get in the Hotel for your stay

Have a good stay without any issues

Move out of the Hotel

Possible friction points

1. The listings have incorrect price
2. The listings have incorrect pictures/description of the properties/rooms
3. The pricing terms i.e. refundable/non-refundable, cancellation charges are highlighted and clear

1. The taxes/surcharges increases the booking price while paying
2. The coupon code/cashbacks promised don’t apply
3. The payment system doesn’t works flawlessly in case of prepaid rooms
4. The cancellation charges are more than what they were communicated in terms and conditions

1. The room promised isn't available or provided
2. The attendant denies booking has been received
3. The attendant isn't pleasing and polite
4. The check-in process takes forever
5. There is no person for carrying luggage when the luggage is huge
6. The attendant asks for extra amount for the upgrade when the promised room wasn't available or asks extra amount for the same room

1. The property isn't clean
2. The room isn't made and is messy
3. No coffee or water bottles provided
4. No hot water in the morning
5. The AC isn't working
6. Not all the amenities are available at the site or are broken down
7. Reception doesn’t answer the call
8. Room service is delayed
9. Neighbors are loud
10. Unprofessional behavior from the staff
11. Laundry is delayed

1. More than promised amount charged for dining/laundry
2. Items are added which were not consumed
3. Bill isn't ready
4. Customer service doesn’t respond to the complaints

Based on the user needs, we have identified the customer journey, the job that the customer wants to do and the possible friction points in each steps.

Each of these friction points potentially contributes to customer moving out and thus drop in customer retention.

Now unlike a food delivery wherein if the delivery gets cancelled at the last moment, users still have option to book another one, although a bit inconvenient, users can either cook at home, order another one or go out and eat.

But in case of a Hotel, the user is in a different city and last minute cancellations are super painful.

It leaves them nowhere, since the Hotel rooms are perishable inventory, last moment availability is a challenge and the prices tend to be exorbitant.

Before driving towards the solution, I would like to use the data to get some more insights.

If the users are doing repeat purchases, I would like to survey them and get the reason why (to understand what's working out well)
For the users who had been booking repeatedly and have dropped out, I would see if there were support cases that were logged by them, under what all categories
1. Either we did not remediate those cases well, causing them to drop out completely
2. Experience was bad and although the issues were resolved, users lost faith
For the users who came, bought one time and left, I would analyze their behavior
1. Did they have any issues raised with the support team?
2. I would survey them to understand the expectation mismatch
I would monitor social media pulse/issues raised on the same to quantify the different categories of the issue

Once we have the issues identified, we'll have to offer some compensation to bring users back on the system.

Need to devise a permanent solution to avoid such occurrences.

Apart from tackling issues that are found in this approach (which are mostly the friction points listed) , below are some of the additional features/solutions that can help with retention

Solution:

#	Solution	Effort	Helps increase Retention
1	Oyo rooms should provide a great loyalty program or tie up with existing loyalty programs like Amazon prime/Flipkart plus to keep rewarding users for their stays in terms of benefits/points/free nights etc.	M	Yes
2	Oyo rooms should try reserving contingencies inventory where they have historically observed a lot of last minute rooms unavailability by the property owners. These inventory then can be provided to the customer so that he is not stuck at the last moment and has been provided an alternative	M	Yes
3	Oyo should have surprise packages for couples on honeymoon, family outings for family trip etc. to delight the customers; hoping it would create ripple effect and spread the positivity around the brand	L	May be
4	Oyo should introduce prepaid holiday program, wherein buyers get certain number of nights at high end properties at the tourist/business places assured over the next few years. This will help buyers stick to Oyo	H	Yes

Based on the above, once the friction point in the existing systems are handled, we can see if there is increase in the retention.

Post the same, from the above 4 features, #1 and #2 can be tried and see if that helps with retention.

neeraj gather · Answer 2 · 2020-03-20T22:07:16+0000

A few more points on top of my head in reference to the question & answer given by Hitesh Patel-

Business tie ups can be explored more in detail:

1. Collaboration with cab aggregators to provide airport pick up & drop (as most business tie ups are based out of meto/major cities in close vicinity to domestic airports)

Users can also be segregated based on:

1. Travel appetite - May help in targeting and rewarding the userbase with frequent travel history

2. Age groups - Bachelors (18-30) can be another user group which can be targeted as they are more associated with OYO because of 'Pay at Hotel' option & inclination towards 'affordable rates rather than leisure'

3. Loyalty based groups (Happy, sad, indifferent) - concept of personalized marketing can be used here to provide personalized deals to retain each set of userbase

Other ideas -

1. 'Complete travel package discounts' as there are some users who book 'OYO - pay at hotel' for day 1 to assure accomodation and make rest of the booking during the travel after consulting with local communities

2. Collaboration with Flight aggregators to provide 'Book OYO' option

3. Can also explore business models of indirect competitors like Airbnb to target different set of users who are looking for a slightly longer stay/homestay at affordable rates (This can be targeted towards international tourists as indian users don't tend to plan long one place stays)

I am sure some of these solutions would already be in place though not totally adopted by users yet.

But if I have to think from a little different angle, it would be on the lines of targeting passive users. The application usage/site traffic and user engagement also have a great impact in retention (as well bringing new customers). Not many users visit OYO site/application until and unless they have decided on the travel destinations and dates. OYO can think of ways to attract these passive users who start making the travel plans months before and engage in lot of research on travel destinations, budget planning & safety guidelines. A community of sorts could be a common idea to consider. This would likely increase their chances of booking accomodation through OYO.

Hope this helps.