OYO NOW! a really interesting execution of concept to solve the problem of finding the right hotel, in the right budget, RIGHT NOW!
Unexpected, unplanned or sometimes even planned travel takes you to unfamiliar places. Choosing the right hotel is something which can take a lot of your time. OYO Now simplifies this for you by curating a personalized set of best available OYO’s near you at amazingly attractive prices.
It was so much fun building this ground up with one of the most awesome team !
Following is the post as published on Medium. Thanks to Shreyas Joshi for the write-up.
Without a sense of urgency, desire loses its value. ~ Jim Rohn
Background
What are perishable goods? Aside from the obvious answers such as vegetables, fruits etc. — information can also be a perishable good in purely economic terms.
The value of the daily news, for example, reduces exponentially as time passes. That is why the newspaper that you buy in the morning is almost worthless in value by the time the day ends. No one is going to pay anything to find out which political candidate has a better chance at winning when the election results have already been out for a month.
In a similar way, in today’s digital age — movie tickets, flight seats, room nights — these are all perishable goods. Their value is a function of both the demand and the time until which that demand exists.
(Fun fact: OYO is also valued more than the Taj Group and the Oberoi Hotel group combined)
Challenge-opportunity paradigm
Needless to say, matching supply with demand efficiently has been an age-old problem across various industries.
But no problem is unsolvable for OYOpreneurs. At OYO, Technology continues to not just enable business but also drive new business ideas through innovative features. And while selling off perishable goods (thus increasing occupancy) might seem a challenge to many, we at OYO looked at this problem as an opportunity.
Discounting has been tried-and-tested tactics used by every Tom, Dick, and Harry who are in the business of selling products/services online.
But there are multiple issues that we wanted to avoid while designing OYO Now! and some of them we have listed below
Mass targeting — flat discounts for everyone, irrespective of their intent
Non-Contextual Offers — providing offers without knowing what the user is searching, deals have low or no relevance to the user
No sense of urgency — Doesn’t seem like a real deal. Discounts are omnipresent
Deals not available within booking funnel — Once the user actually is in the process, there’s no incentive for him to complete the purchase
OYO Now! — An intuitive, lightning fast way of booking at the best price!
OYO Now! is a three-pronged solution –
It is a real deal — click it or miss it. The timer counts to 45 minutes once the user opens his app. (If the deal expires, there’s no way you can avail the same through any other user flow in the app)
It incentivizes the user to complete the purchase without a compromise on quality — also ensures demand is well distributed amongst all highly rated OYO properties
It is contextual — the user has high intent and urgency (as they have provided the date and location of booking), and we try to provide the best prices only on the properties that fall within his search parameters
There are other advantages such that this also increases customer delight as well as motivates the customer to book OYO through our platform, and provides OYO with an avenue to educate the user about our new initiatives within the customer journey itself.
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