OYO, a tech pioneer in hotel services that offers standardised accommodation to travellers, has collaborated with eSewa for online and offline booking and digital payments.

With this collaboration, travellers can now book and pay for rooms at OYO’s partner hotels through eSewa’s platform. President of eSewa Asgar Ali and vice president of OYO Prasun Choudhary inked an agreement, on behalf of their respective organisations. Ali said that the partnership between eSewa and OYO would boost tourism in Nepal. He said, “In the context where Nepal has announced to make 2020 as Visit Nepal Year, we believe that this partnership will contribute in on-boarding tourists.”

On the same occasion, Choudhary said: “OYO is excited to partner with eSewa which shares a similar dream to offer great services to consumers in Nepal backed by technology.” He also mentioned that eSewa’s large agent network and customer base is sure to help OYO reach more customers and generate bookings. eSewa has launched attractive cashback on top of the economical rates on OYO Hotel Bookings. Customers will get 15 percent cashback on booking OYO Hotels at Pokhara and 7 percent cashback on booking OYO Hotels in Kathmandu.

OYO was launched in Nepal in Mid-2017 and currently has affiliation with 35 hotels accommodating 600 rooms. It has planned to expand its business to 3,000 rooms in 150 hotels by the end of 2018.

eSewa, is Nepal’s first payment service provider operating since 2009. Licensed by Nepal Rastra Bank, it has the largest network of agents and banks. With 800,000 customers, 34,000 agents and

46 banks in its network, it is providing services such as mobile top-up, electricity and water supply bills, airlines and bus ticketing, school fees, internet bill payments and bank transfers, among others.