Oyo Hotels is once again taking heat from Indian hotel partners, accusing the hotel chain of trying to unilaterally change contract terms without notice.
Citing the Covid-19 pandemic, Oyo is invoking a ‘force majeure’ clause and plans to suspend guaranteed payments.
Some hotel partners get minimum guarantee payments regardless of the number of guest bookings.
That has irked many hotels which say there is no force majeure clause in their contracts.
The Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Associations of India says it has received complaints from multiple hotels.
"We have reports that Oyo is now coercing hotels to agree and renegotiate to arbitrary and unreasonable terms by citing the pandemic and the ‘force majeure’ clause," said Gurbaxish Singh Kohli, vice president of the group.
"It is strange that Oyo has made tall claims in the media of offering free rooms for relief purposes which was without the express permission of the property owners, while on the other hand they are preying on these owners and partners."
In a letter to partners, Oyo has proposed new agreements to pocket 10% of net revenue from bookings, on top of other costs including ‘customer acquisition expenses.’
