OYO Hotels & Homes, now the world’s third-largest and fastest-growing hotel chain, has announced that it has acquired Danamica, a Danish data science company. Danamica, with machine learning and business intelligence capabilities, specialises in dynamic pricing. This acquisition is in line with OYO’s continued commitment to the company’s global strategic investments in technology products, processes, and people. Earlier in August, the company has committed to invest €300 million in the vacation homes business in Europe, with a special focus on strengthening the relationship with homeowners and enabling them with the resources, including technology investments, required to deliver chic hospitality experiences. With the acquisition of Danamica, OYO will be able to drive top-line growth by leveraging dynamic pricing across all its brands – OYO Home, Belvilla and DanCenter, all of them already at the forefront of vacation rental pricing in Europe. Additionally, OYO and its real estate partners around the world will benefit using data sciences for improved yield. Starting with Europe, Danamica’s technology innovations will benefit OYO’s global vacation homes business. Commenting on the development, Maninder Gulati, Global Head, OYO Vacation and Urban Homes, & Chief Strategy Officer, OYO Hotels & Homes, said, “We are delighted to announce our acquisition of Danamica, a Europe based, machine learning and business intelligence company specialized in dynamic pricing, that will help us be more accurate with pricing, leading to higher efficiencies and yield for our real estate owners and value for money for our millions of global guests, both everyday travellers and city dwellers, that choose an OYO Vacation Homes as their abode.” “Data sciences across Pricing, AI, 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. We are glad to have found Danamica, which has built expertise in these areas. Both Rune and Mads (Co-Founders – Danamica) are extremely talented individuals and together with their team, they have 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,” added Maninder. With the implementation of ML-enabled pricing and revenue management, customers will be able to book a vacation home at the best price. “We are very pleased to announce that Danamica is now part of OYO Vacation Homes family. OYO’s ambition and growth are extraordinary and we couldn’t imagine taking part in a more exciting journey. OYO and Danamica have a shared understanding of the importance and impact of AI and data science. Like OYO, we recognize the untapped potential in the vacation rental industry that can be fulfilled with a data-driven approach. We are therefore confident that we have found the right home for us in OYO and are excited about the prospect of using our expertise in pricing and machine learning to further help OYO’s continued growth and success,” said Mads Westberg & Rune Larsen, Founders, Danamica. Similar to airlines, and ride-sharing companies, OYO has introduced dynamic pricing in the hospitality industry to create a level-playing ground even for an independent or small hotelier or homeowner. OYO’s pricing, inventory allocation, and revenue management are driven by a machine learning-based algorithm for prediction and dynamic pricing. The algorithm analyzes 144,000 data points every hour and makes 60 million price changes every day globally with a prediction accuracy of 97%. It allows each asset to drive max RevPAR based on its micro-location. It allows pricing to adjust dynamically to supply and demand. In peak times pricing adjusts to deliver high RevPAR, in low times, it also goes down to still allow for maximum customers to experience the product while increasing overall yield for owners. It is a boon for customers and core to the success of our business model worldwide, across businesses.
Belvilla’s OYO Hotels & Homes has bought data science company Danamica to use the Danish firm’s machine learning (ML) and business intelligence offerings for hotel pricing. OYO said the deal would allow for more accurate pricing, with increased efficiency for property owners and more value for guests. The Danamica acquisition, for undisclosed terms, came shortly after OYO revealed it is spending €300m ($328m) developing its European holiday home business. It operates the OYO Home, India and DanCenter brands.