The world, today, is moving ahead at a faster pace than it did a decade ago. What was a challenge back then is an opportunity today. Building a safe ecosystem is one such opportunity. When you think about travel, security is your key concern along with quality, location, and price. Keeping in mind the need of the modern-day traveler, OYO Hotels and Homes aims to help to create a perfect space in every place by solving each of these considerations through a combination of technology and on-ground interventions.
With the objective of making every OYO guests stay a seamless and safer experience, we are today introducing a consolidated and comprehensive in-app safety feature called the SOS button – a first in the hospitality industry. The in-app SOS feature reiterates our commitment to bringing technology-led innovations to enhance the safety of all our guests.
The in-app SOS button feature will enable our guests experiencing any kind of emergency situation to get immediate assistance. It activates when guests check-in and gives guests the option to contact the 24×7 OYO Safety Response Team (SRT) as well as local law enforcement authorities. The addition of the SOS button is meant to improve both awareness as well as usage of all the 4 safety features that OYO provides:
24×7 Tech-enabled Assistance Before, During & After a booking
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How does the in-app SOS feature work?
- On tapping the SOS button, a trigger is generated to alert OYO’s 24×7 Safety Response Team(SRT) along with guest, booking, location and emergency contact details
- Guests are also prompted with two options – contact OYO Safety Response Team or Call Police. Depending on the severity of the issue, a guest can exercise either option.
- In cases, where the guest chooses to connect with the Police first, a back end ticket is still generated and sent to the SRT team
- Once the SRT team receives this information, they instantly respond to each case and inform relevant authorities as per standardized SOP
- The typical response time for this step is within 3 minutes
To resolve severe challenges, we have ensured additional on-ground support, where our guests can coordinate with the on-ground partners, including the local OYO AGM/Captain, our contracted private security firm and local hotel staff to touch base with the guest and resolve the issue within 35 minutes.
The SOS button feature will be implemented phase-wise and the first phase of the implementation is scheduled to begin in 25 cities — Delhi-NCR, Lucknow, Mumbai, Meerut, Bangalore, Patna, Hyderabad, Pune, Chennai, Raipur, Kolkata, Nagpur, Ahmedabad, Vizag, Bhopal, Bhubaneshwar, Chandigarh, Dehradun, Goa, Guwahati, Indore, Jaipur, Jalandhar, Jammu, Jamshedpur — with a pilot already running in Gurugram.
