Valentine’s Day is no longer limited to a sombre exchange of gifts and dinners. Instead, it is an opportunity to spend quality time with loved ones, thereby encouraging many to relax with short getaways reveals the Valentine’s Day booking statistics by OYO.
OYO Hotels & Homes, a young hotel startup and the world’s leading chain of hotels, homes, and spaces today released a snapshot of Valentine’s Day bookings trends in 2020. OYO’s booking data revealed a whopping 90.57% increase in Valentine’s Day bookings across India, with guests ranging from families, couples to solo travellers.
Interestingly, OYO’s mobile app witnessed a 100% increase in consumer bookings from last year, while less than 10% of the total bookings preferred to book their stays through the website and other channels. With Valentine’s Day falling on a Friday, booking trends revealed that this year consumers started planning their travel way in advance, with one consumer booking his OYO as early as 24th August 2019.
Here are India’s Top 10 cities of love:
The startup observed a spike in bookings pan India, with Delhi continuing to top OYO’s Valentine’s Day booking charts, followed by the cities of Bangalore, Kolkata, Hyderabad and Chennai. Interestingly, across OYO’s international markets too, guests opted to stay at OYOs located in capital cities, with Kaula Lumpur emerging as the most booked city in Malaysia, Kathmandu in Nepal and Jakarta in Indonesia.
Across South India, Pondicherry, Chennai and Hyderabad emerged as the most sought-after destinations for Valentine’s Day celebrations whereas Goa, Pune and Mumbai were top locations preferred by consumers across West India. With no surprise here, Kolkata was the most popular city in East India for 14th February bookings.
Love is in the air: According to OYO’s booking data, Delhi, Bangalore and Kolkata were the top three cities that made the most advance bookings for the big Valentine’s Day weekend, which explains why these cities were also the most searched locations on the OYO app for booking requests between 14th-16th February.
Harshit Vyas, Chief Business Officer, OYO Hotels & Homes – India said, “Valentine’s Day falls on a Friday this year, giving people across the country an opportunity to extend this special day into a long weekend. We’re thrilled to share that so far, we’ve observed a whopping 90.57% increase in Valentine’s Day bookings, along with a 100% increase in-app bookings with a mix of bookings coming in from families, couples as well as solo travellers.
We believe that with our offerings, we’ve enabled many consumers to opt for an affordable and good quality stay across cities. With consumer experience at the heart of everything we do, we are enhancing our capabilities to ensure that every guest who walks out of an OYO has the best experience. We’re extremely excited to host everyone who chose to stay with us while celebrating this special day and look forward to serving many more guests throughout the year!”
This Valentine’s Day, OYO also rolled out its social media campaign #CheckInForLove, a concept that takes a desi approach to Valentine’s Day by riding on existing pop phrases and cult art styles. The campaign that went live on 7th February has resulted in a 284% increase in positive sentiment for OYO.