OYO Hotels & Homes to invest in machine learning-powered dynamic pricing and business intelligence technologies for its vacation homes business

OYO Hotels & Homes to invest in machine learning-powered dynamic pricing and business intelligence technologies for its vacation homes business

We at OYO Hotels & Homes strive to create seamless and comfortable experiences for our guests and this relentless effort to overachieve has been differentiating us consistently over the years. In the spirit of making great strides and our ability to balance excellent and hassle-free guest service, we are happy to announce that we have acquired Danamica, a Copenhagen based data science company with machine learning and business intelligence capabilities, specialized in dynamic pricing. 

 

This acquisition is in line with our continued commitment to the company’s global vacation rentals business through strategic investments in technology products, processes, and people. Early last month, we made an announcement making a commitment 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. This drive has been possible owing to the enormous preference for vacation homes by customers around the world. This is the start of a social revolution – how a truly global brand from India is not just reimagining hotels & reinventing living spaces but also upgrading all forms of real estate and thereby enabling these middle-income travellers and city dwellers experience #LivingTheGoodLife. With OYO Vacation Homes we are aiming at offering guests a consistent top-notch holiday experience and becoming the partner of choice for homeowners. 

 

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,” 

 

Kim Holmsted, COO, Dancentre, OYO Vacation Homes, with  Mads Westberg & Rune Larsen, Founders, Danamica.

 

“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.

 

With the acquisition of Danamica, we will further be able to drive top-line growth by leveraging dynamic pricing across all our brands – OYO Home, Belvilla and DanCenter, all of them already at the forefront of vacation rental pricing in Europe. Much similar to airlines and ride-sharing companies, we have introduced the dynamic pricing in the hospitality industry to create a level-playing ground even for an independent or small hotelier or homeowner. 

 

With the implementation of ML-enabled pricing and revenue management, customers will be able to book a vacation home at the best price. Our 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. We recognize the value of innovation and how this will prove to be a boon for customers and core to the success of our business model worldwide, across businesses. 

 

Our full-stack fulfilment-led model enables us to run quality-ensured accommodations across different formats and place them in the hands of travellers who are always on the lookout for unique experiences. Additionally, we will now be able to further expand our ability to use pricing as a key differentiator for real estate owners and customers. Starting with Europe, Danamica’s technology innovations will benefit our global OYO vacation homes business. 

Meet the author / Aatif Hashmi