India-based franchising and hospitality company Oyo has forayed into Japan’s housing rental market through a joint venture with Yahoo Japan Corporation to form Oyo Technology & Hospitality Company.
Japanese entrepreneur and former Japan market leader for Handy and Booking.com, Hiro Katsuse, appointed as CEO of the newly formed company.
The joint venture will see Oyo bringing its housing rental product, Oyo Living, from India to Japan from March 2019. To be-christened as Oyo Life in Japan, the entity aims to enter the housing rental segment in the country by providing “upgraded living experiences at an affordable price”, targeting Japanese citizens, students and young professionals, the company announced in a statement.
As the latest addition to Oyo’s portfolio, Japan will make up the “third and potentially the largest home market” for the fast-expanding company, which counts India and China as its home markets, announced Ritesh Agarwal, CEO & founder, Oyo Hotels and Homes.
The partnership is expected to combine Yahoo’s marketing and distribution capabilities with Oyo’s ability to transform and manage rental housing properties with the help of technology.
In his newly appointed CEO role of Oyo Technology & Hospitality Company, Katsuse added: “With the launch of Oyo LIFE, we are all set to leverage Oyo’s hospitality experience to offer a first-of-its-kind, end-to-end fully managed housing experience. I look forward to leveraging our partnership with Yahoo! Japan and Oyo’s expertise from across the world to scale Oyo Life, a product built in Japan for Japanese customers.”
Pre-registration is now available for stays starting March, he announced.
Millennium Hilton Bangkok has launched a battery electric limousine service, the result of a collaboration with Rizen Energy, the authorised importer and distributor of BYD electric vehicles in Thailand.
An initiative said to be the first of its kind, the collaborative project targets to reduce 15,000kg of carbon in 2019 by encouraging hotel guests to use BYD electric limousines as part of the riverfront hotel’s strong intention to reduce solve Bangkok’s critical pollution problem.
Heidi Kleine-Moeller, general manager of Millennium Hilton Bangkok, sees an “achievable” target for 2019. She said: “Considering that a combustion engine car emits approximately 200g per kilometre, we need to ensure that until the end of 2019 our e-limousine can service our guests no less than 88,000km or 1,200 round trips from Suvarnabhumi Airport to Millennium Hilton Bangkok and back.”
Against the backdrop of worsening air pollution in Bangkok, the opportunity to partner with BYD will offer a new environmentally-friendly mode of transport to hotel guests and clients, which “hopefully will reach other companies and the government soon as well to make a difference city and country wide”, Kleine-Moeller added.
According to Ronachai Chinwattanaporn, CEO of Rizen Energy, BYD e6, the first electric limousine in Thailand, has been in use worldwide for public transportation for more than eight years. It is proven to be reliable, safe and practical.
Two BYD e6 will be at service during the pilot period, and the fleet could be extended upon the demands for e-limo service, Ronachai revealed. A new model is expected to join the fleet by mid-2019, he added.