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COVID-19: Oyo CEO sees rebound | Travel giant BCD to cut 3,000 jobs

Oyo CEO: Business has rebounded

India-based hotel startup Oyo Hotels & Homes has seen a key financial figure rebound to 20% below pre-pandemic levels after falling as much as 60% earlier in the year, according to Chief Executive Ritesh Agarwal. Speaking at The Wall Street Journal’s Tech Live conference on Tuesday, Agarwal said the figure, which Oyo labels gross margin, was at its lowest around April, when business dried up amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Globally, Oyo has shrunk to around 1 million rooms, Agarwal added. Much of the decline has occurred in China, which has been a particularly tough market for Oyo amid the pandemic, he said.

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Business travel giant BCD to cut 3,000 jobs

Business travel company BCD is cutting 3,000 jobs out of a total worldwide workforce of 14,000, according to the company’s founder. Utrecht, Netherlands-based BCD was hard hit by the coronavirus crisis, which has virtually halted business travel and boosted video conferencing over person-to-person meetings. Sales slumped at the height of the crisis by 99%, and founder Fentener van Vlissingen expects full year turnover to be down 75%. The company is the third-biggest in the world behind American Express and CWT, booking sales of US$16 billion on business travel last year. BCD books some 70% of its turnover in the US.

Read more at Dutch News 

Miami-Dade County, Florida, is counting billions in hospitality and restaurant losses amid the pandemic. | Gabriel Kaplan via Flickr
Miami-Dade County, Florida, is counting billions in hospitality and restaurant losses amid the pandemic. | Gabriel Kaplan via Flickr

Florida region facing more than US$3B in losses

Hotel and restaurants in Florida’s Miami-Dade County have taken a US$3.36 billion hit from COVID-19, according to a new study from Florida International University’s FIU Chaplin School of Hospitality & Tourism Management. The study says the pandemic is responsible for US$1.3 billion in direct revenue loss to hotels and US$742 million in direct revenue loss to restaurants, when comparing March through August 2019 with the same period in 2020. Hotels and restaurants lost another $US664.7 million in indirect spending from a reduction in expenditures such as raw materials, supplies and other operating expenses, plus another US$651.8 million in induced losses as a result of the ripple effect of furloughed workers not spending on the local economy.

Read the full study 

NY developer’s businesses received millions in aid

Companies controlled by one of New York’s most prominent hotel developers received millions of dollars in loans from a U.S. government program intended to support small businesses as the coronavirus pummeled the economy. At least eight businesses owned by developer Sam Chang received between US$2.8 million and just over US$7 million in federal small business loans. A spokesman for Chang told CNBC in a statement that the loans were intended, in part, to help retain employees.

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Florida’s Lord Balfour Hotel in foreclosure

The pandemic brought especially bad timing for the owner of a South Beach, Florida hotel, which purchased it last year, embarked on a multimillion-dollar renovation, and has now ended up losing its investment. Leste Group and its partner, Moto Capital Group, last month foreclosed on the newly renovated 81-room Lord Balfour Hotel on Ocean Drive, according to The Real Deal South Florida. Hotel borrowers nationwide are facing the threat of foreclosure by their senior lenders, as well as Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) foreclosures from mezzanine lenders, the latter of which are often faster.

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COVID relief group launches new ad

The COVID Relief Now Coalition, a group representing close to 300 major public and private sector groups across the U.S., launched a digital advertising campaign urging policymakers to quickly approve a new COVID-19 relief package that addresses the needs of businesses and workers who have been severely impacted by the pandemic. The ads highlight the need for additional relief, noting the widespread business closures, layoffs, and precipitous decline in state and local revenues facing the U.S. economy.

Watch the ad

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