Bengaluru based hospitality company Ruptub Solutions pvt ltd that owns and operates Treebo Hotels, has fired as many as 100-120 employees, or about 20% of its workforce, as per a report.
The reason behind downsizing its employee count is because of a large potential investment round falling through as per the report. The hospitality chain was reported to be in talks with the French hotel chain, Accor SA, for an investment upto $40 Mn as per reports. Accor operates across various price categories, owning brands such as Sofitel, Ibis, Raffles, Novotel, and Mercure.
As per the report, around 50-55 employees have been asked to resign from corporate sales (B2B), quality, and business development functions. The employees have been given a month of severance pay, and an assurance of a recommendation for a job.
Last year also the budget hotel aggregator had laid off 70-80 employees after MakeMyTrip, the country’s premier online travel site stopped listing the company on its platform owing to an association with Oyo Rooms. During that time, the company had backed its decision on the back of technology adoption and less requirement of human resources.
Treebo was founded in March 2015 by IIT-Roorkee graduates Rahul Chaudhary, Sidharth Gupta, and Kadam Jeet Jain, had last raised $34 Mn in August 2017, led by Hong Kong-based hedge funds Ward Ferry Management and Karst Peak Capital. It operates more than 500 properties across 90 cities in India, with 10,500-11,000 rooms under management.
There is one opinion which suggest the mighty Oyo Rooms which raised $1 billion recently has grown so strong and powerful that business in the hospitality market have been under pressure to raise larger rounds.So the smaller players are finding it hard to survive.
