Indian hotel booking site introduces ‘Relationship mode’

Holidaymakers can find ‘couple friendly’ hotels using Indian booking platform, OYO.

When finding and booking the right holiday accommodation, holiday-makers take into account a large number of variables, making it the ideal industry for search and comparison platforms. Springwise has covered innovations that cater to particular audience groups by allowing users to search on the basis of specific information. Amongst them, a sustainable travel platform that helps travelers find eco-friendly hotels and a travel site that enables customers to book trips that their friends have curated. Now online marketplace for affordable stays in India, OYO, allows users to search and book hotels that are ‘couple friendly’.

Many of the more conservative hotels in India require that couples booking a room together provide proof of marriage. This is problematic for those who either don’t wish to or can’t. Since there is no law requiring such checks to be mandatory, it is down to the hotel owners’ discretion. Thanks to OYO’s new “Relationship Mode” feature on its app, those booking rooms are able to select only hotels that will not require such relationship dissection.

Ritesh Agarwal is the founder and CEO at OYO. He was the first resident Asian to be selected for the Thiel Fellowship. Will we see more socially progressive innovations coming out of India?