February 25: Recently established in 2021, BYO is a new online hotel and cab booking business venture that grabbed much of the limelight and attention. Book Your Own (BYO) boasts of becoming India’s hotel market unicorn by 2025. This article traces out the journey of their startup business, their mission, and vision. Also, find out what encouraged the founder Amandeep Singh to launch BYO in pandemic!
So, How and When BYO was launched?
After completing his PG diploma in business management from Monash University, Australia, Amandeep Singh was keen to start his own business.
In his initial days, he worked with various IT companies in Melbourne as a digital marketing expert & business analyst. With his experience and knowledge, he helped many entrepreneurs, SMBs in brand building, generating leads, and improving business revenue.
- hipages.com.au
- Homeessential.com.au
- serviceseeking.com.au
After spending about 8 years in Melbourne, Australia, he decided to move back to India. When he came in 2015, he started his own digital marketing company; Smartways Digital Marketing in Punjab. At present, SSDM is one of the leading IT companies in India.
In 2019, November
The Idea of BYO struck when he booked two hotel rooms through OYO for vacation with friends in Himachal Pradesh. Unfortunately, they had a bad guest experience.
Amandeep says, “We had to spend the whole night in our car. It was already cold and it was shocking that despite getting a confirmation message from OYO; there was not even a single room available in the hotel. So, that’s when I decided to find the loopholes.” After thorough analysis and research, he found that many customers were unhappy and not satisfied with other hotel booking platforms likeFabhotels, Beekeeper, Holiday me, and others. Amandeep further adds, “No doubt, these businesses are generating great revenue, but there are some major setbacks that need to be improved. Despite being paid by online hotel booking platforms, various hotel operators are misleading the confirmed customers. Whereas, if a customer requests for cancellation, these hotel booking platforms block their commissions.”
So, keeping all these parameters in mind, Mr. Amandeep decided to start a new business venture in India’s hotel industry. That’s how BYO (bookyourown.net) was born!
In 2020, December
He invested his time and skills in recognizing the loopholes of the hotel industry and the main area of problems. and, Finally, BYO was successfully launched in 2021 with a focus to provide 100% safe budget hotels and standardized hotel services. He aims to make this startup beneficial for both the customers and vendors.
In 2021, February
BYO launched its official App for iOS and Android users. This user-friendly app got huge appreciation. The customers were able to book the hotel and cab on the same platform. By now, Book Your Own has listed 300+ BYO Hotels, 4000 rooms in 17 different cities of India.
In 2022
At present, this affordable online booking hotel and cab booking platform has partnered with over 350 hotels all over India. It includes 3-star and 5-star hotels to facilitate the middle class to upper-class customers. As a startup, their Vision is to expand their business all over India by the end of this year.
The Future Vision of BookYourOwn:
The founder Mr. Amandeep Singh, Co-founder Ms. Mandeep Kaur along the BYO team are bracing themselves to reach a wider audience in upcoming years. They are projecting on improving their technology to enhance the travel and guest experience.
Ms. Mandeep Kaur says, “Our Vision is to become India’s #1 safe & standardized hospitality brand. We are looking forward to expanding our budget hotel business aggressively in all the hot tourism spots of India.”
