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Briefs: Oyo founder triples stake | US RevPAR down again

Agarwal triples stake in Oyo: Oyo Hotels and Homes founder Ritesh Agarwal, 25, will invest US$2 billion to triple his stake in the SoftBank-backed Indian lodgings startup. He will buy shares from existing investors Lightspeed Venture Partners and Sequoia India, which will remain backers of the startup but will reportedly gain returns of over US$500 million each. The deal will value Oyo at about US$10 billion and raise Agarwal’s slice of the company to 30% from about 10%, people familiar with the matter said. The investment by Agarwal has been made through RA Hospitality Holdings (Cayman), the company said in a statement.

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U.S. RevPAR declines again: The U.S. hotel industry reported mostly negative results in the three key performance metrics during June 2019, according to data from STR.  In a year-over-year comparisons, occupancy was -1.3% at 73.5%; ADR was +0.9% to US$134.52; and RevPAR was -0.4% to US$98.85. This was just the industry’s second month in the past 112 with a negative year-over-year RevPAR comparison.

La La Land booming: L.A. County is outpacing the rest of California in construction, according to data from Atlas Hospitality Group. Statewide, 36 hotels have opened so far this year, compared with 26 hotels at the same point last year. The number of new hotels in planning increased 19%. In L.A., four new hotels with 505 rooms opened the first half of the year. The county has 45 hotels with 7,497 rooms under construction and 268 hotels with 40,190 rooms in planning. The county leads California in both number of rooms under construction and under development. Most of the construction and development is downtown.

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Are resort fees for tips? Caribbean hotels are reportedly reconsidering using Booking.com as a result of the OTA’s new commission policy on additional fees, which has been branded “regressive and punitive.” The Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association considers the Booking.com a levy on staff tips, while Booking said it is updating its process when it comes to charging commission only on mandatory extra fees such as service fee or resort fee charged outside of the rate. In a letter to Booking.com, the CHTA cited “a strong negative backlash” from members particularly on how it cuts into employee tips and gratuities. CHTA’s Chief Executive Frank Comito said the extra commissions could result in rising prices as hotels attempt to recoup losses from recent hurricanes.

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New brand comes to Manila: SM Hotels and Conventions Corp. and Lanson Place Hospitality Management have signed a management agreement for the first Lanson Place in the Philippines at the heart of SM Mall of Asia in Manila. The Lanson Place Hotel and Serviced Suites Mall of Asia will feature a 250-room hotel and a 150-room serviced suites space. The property is slated to open in 2022.

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