OYO collaborates with MIT* Institute of Design to set up on-campus Design Lab
New Delhi: Cementing its commitment towards creating beautiful living spaces in the country, OYO has partnered with Maharashtra Institute of Technology – Institute of Design (MIT ID) to establish a design lab in Pune. The creative collaboration will be the source of space and interior designing ideation for OYO’s newly launched category – OYO Home, as well as innovations for its hotel brands including Townhouse and OYO Rooms. OYO Home is India’s first home management service to unlock second homes in holiday locations across India.
The lab located at the institute’s campus, will serve as an inter-disciplinary learning center where students and faculty of MIT ID will work on new opportunities, ideas, future trends and business-oriented design work focused on OYO Home. An internship program will also be launched shortly to build more capacity for space and furniture design that will in turn catalyse onboarding of homes supply.
Commenting on the collaboration, Kavikrut, Chief Growth Officer – OYO, said, “We believe that design is key to creating quality spaces and are hence very excited to partner with MIT ID. Our foray into multiple accommodation formats such as Hotels, Townhouses, Apartments, Villas and Homes has opened up new research and development opportunities in the fields of interior, furniture and space design. OYO is committed to solving for the lack of quality in the hospitality sector. The MoU with MIT ID will further this cause by building capabilities to create unique design solutions for travellers as well as homeowners. We hope that this partnership will also establish new ways of how industry and academia can co-create practical, affordable and scalable solutions for real-world challenges. ”
Prof. Dhimant Panchal, Director – MIT Institute of Design, Pune, added “MIT ID believes that industry collaborations contribute immense value to academics and we are very glad to have this partnership with OYO. This partnership provides an opportunity for students and faculty to work on real-life design challenges that are of strategic importance to OYO. Taking design concepts from an idea stage to the final workable stage is a critical requirement for design students and this partnership will enable our students and faculty to collaborate closely with key team members from OYO and develop solutions in diverse areas of design.”
The partnership entails new models of co-creation. At the “Idea shop”, students will work under the guidance of the institute’s faculty members on classroom projects to ideate and conceptualize design-centric strategies. OYO will further conduct design and industry-related seminars and guest lectures.
OYO is the global pioneer of a new business model that was developed in India, where-in the company standardized and transformed hotel rooms to deliver a hassle-free experience to guests. It established the use of technology in budget-hotel operations and created a new kind of a hospitality company. OYO has several consumer friendly touch-points such as the OYO App which allows guests to control every aspect of their experience – from booking hotel and cabs to ordering food – from their smartphone. Recently, the company introduced OYO Captains, a unique concierge service to ensure smooth travelling and on-stay experience. OYO currently operates over 70,000 rooms in 230 cities in India, Malaysia and Nepal.