Oyo Rooms, the world’s third-largest hospitality company, and UAE-based Gallery Suites Vacation Rentals, a subsidiary of UAE’s IBC group have come together in a property management partnership deal, which has been valued at $5bn (AED 18bn) to furnish and manage 10,000 premier holiday homes in Dubai.
The IBC Group, as part of the agreement, will hold ownership of these properties, while leasing them to Gallery Suites for furnishing and operating under issued permits. Oyo Rooms will be in charge of operational functions such as housekeeping, check-in/check-out facility and marketing.
Speaking about the partnership, Pranav Mehta, the country head for UAE & Oman, OYO Arabia, said, “We at Oyo UAE are keen to expand our engagement with the Dubai market and grow along with the IBC Group through the course of this project. The unique approach that The IBC Group and Gallery Suites are taking in selecting prime hot locations, and in furnishing, this portfolio of properties, as well as the scale of the venture, represents an exciting possibility for collaboration between our two companies.”
READ: UAE-based IBC Group to acquire 10,000 holiday homes in Dubai
AirBnB recently backed Oyo with a buy-in of nearly $200mn, which follows a monumental $800 million funding round led by Masayoshi Son’s $100-billion Vision Fund, in 2018.
The partnership comes at a time when a Skift Reseach report has predicted that the bookings market for short-term rentals will rise to an estimated $115 billion in 2019 from about $107 billion in 2018, making it a 7% rise.
The properties are located in ‘high’ rated areas in the ‘Occupancy heat map’ as published in the recent ‘Dubai Holiday Homes Market Review 2019’ report released by Knight Frank – including the Dubai Marina, Palm Jumeirah and other exclusive addresses in the city.
