[Part 2]

April 30, 2020

Following Part 1 of our series on “Marketing Strategy in times of COVID-19”, and…

in light of the recent Covid-19 pandemic and Movement Control Order (MCO) across Malaysia nationwide, which had been extended to 12 May 2020, we invited business leaders from various industries, from corporate to agencies, to share their reflections, challenges and considerations going forwards during these unprecedented times to emerge stronger.

At OPPOTUS, we always make it a priority to serve as a voice of the industry, to share valuable market insights and provide actionable solutions to support the growth and innovation of the local businesses.  #MalaysiaBoleh  #GoLokal

Thank you to all who took time to contribute and take part in our “Marketing Strategy in times of COVID-19” series.

* Views and opinions expressed below are largely exact verbatim with very minimal edits to suit. 

Getting through Covid-19 together

Ian Goh, Head of Growth Marketing & Partnerships at OYO

As the MCO, hotel occupancy is dropping drastically. Under this situation, most hotels will have to either shutdown or operate in a limited manner.

Our main challenge at the initial stage of MCO was to identify if the hotel industry would be considered under essential services. As it wasn’t classified in the beginning, the first thing we had to solved was the cancellation and refund of our future bookings. However, the government later made a different announcement, where all hotels became classified under essential services but only to essential service staff & international guests.

As most of our major use case which was in travel/leisure category had been affected by the MCO. We had to explore other use cases in the current situation, and we figure that due to the lockdown, some international guests may be facing the problem of finding a place to stay. Likewise, essential service staff that had to be deployed to the affected area, all needed a place to stay. All things considered, we decided to play our part and launched the #StaySafeAtOYO campaign which provided a 50% discount to those that need to stay in a time of need.

With OYO, we always strive to provide quality living spaces to all. During this time, we are also giving out complimentary rooms to health care sector that needed a temporary resting place. Additionally, we have put forward multiple initiatives to reach out to NGOs, foreign embassies & other related stakeholders to assist them in any way we can.

These are unsettling times and COVID-19 is clearing impacting our personal and professional lives, but we are in this together and we will get through it.