Delhi most popular travel destination, Delhiites most confused, says an OYO study
Indians are pretty comfortable making bookings using their smartphones, with 92 percent of travellers finalising their accommodation at OYO properties via a mobile device. Goa was the most searched destination and around 1.4 lakh bookings were made on 22 December, the maximum on any given day.
Hospitality brand OYO has just released its ‘Travelopedia 2018’, the one-of-its-kind index that indicates the travelling pattern and hotel-booking habits of Indians at large. For instance, a lot happens in Delhi, which was the most popular travel destination for visitors around the year. At the same time, the national capital was also deemed the most confused city after the good folks there made the maximum number of cancellations followed by re-bookings in the past year.
Similarly, the Travelopedia says that most preferred OYO locations in Mumbai and Delhi were around the airport, whereas the suburbs of Koramangala in Bengaluru and Salt Lake in Kolkata topped the charts in those cities.
Moving down south, the state of Karnataka was declared to be the most welcoming in the country.
The hospitality startup may have announced its plans for long-term rentals only a few months back, but one customer had decided on that even earlier. One user stayed at an OYO property for 228 maximum continuous nights. Similarly, another user made full use of OYO's international expansion, travelling to four different countries and staying at OYO properties throughout.
Among the other interesting facts that emerged from the Travelopedia was that popular beach destination of Goa emerged as the most-searched destination. Further, a room was booked every 0.75 seconds and the most popular time to book a property was around 8 pm.
The total number of bookings nearly tripled in 2018 and 92 percent of these were done via a mobile phone, reflecting the growing digitisation among urban travellers across India.
“One of the most interesting findings was the maximum number of tourists visiting India were from the UAE,” said Abhinav Sinha, Chief Operating Officer (COO) of OYO Hotels. “This reiterates the fact that we have been a great host to our valuable guests not just within the country, but also internationally.”
The information is based on data collected and catalogued from the millions of searches and activity that takes place from all parts of the world on the app, website as well as partner sites of OYO, the company told YourStory.
