File photo/NBD

May 30 (NBD) -- Meituan Hotels, an accommodation subsidiary of the lifestyle services unicorn Meituan-Dianping (3690.HK), has reached business cooperation with India's largest budget hotel operator OYO on traffic exchange, data management and branding, according to news site Sina Tech.

From the latest earnings report of Meituan-Dianping, National Business Daily (NBD) found that the platform's domestic room nights consumed increased by 29.8 percent to 78.6 million in the three months ended March 31, 2019 from 60.6 million in the same period of 2018.

OYO said it operates more than 450,000 hotel rooms in 320 cities in China by now. The India's budget hotel chain company claims it is the second-largest hotel group in China and the sixth-largest around the globe.

Meituan-Dianping said that its partnership with OYO will further activate consumer demand in third- and fourth-tier cities and will give full play to the advantages of both sides to promote hotel consumption and experience in China.

NBD noticed that OYO also formed strategic cooperation with China's largest online travel agency (OTA) Ctrip earlier this week. Ctrip (NASDAQ: CTRP) owns almost half the shares of Indian online travel company MakeMyTrip.

The tie-ups with Meituan-Dianping and Ctrip will further improve the OTA channel for OYO, industry insiders noted.

Email: gaohan@nbd.com.cn