
Oyo runs into real problems in Japan - chewz
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/02/18/business/corporate-business/masayoshi-son-oyo/
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chewz
> But Oyo’s technology wasn’t ready. In the first three months after launch,
> the hotel operation double-booked rooms because it had failed to integrate
> with local travel agencies, according to Oyo and former employees. Staff in
> India entered reservations made in Japanese manually, introducing errors.
> Some hotel owners found their rates reduced to just pennies by inscrutable
> algorithms. When they complained, the fix would take days because pricing
> was controlled in India, according to former employees.

> At the same time, Oyo Life workers struggled to keep track of keys they
> received from landlords because of software created in India. One tenant
> interviewed by Bloomberg spent the night in his car outside of his new
> apartment because he was given a wrong code for a lock box containing the
> keys. Even though it was during working hours, no one was manning the help
> lines at the company, he said. Two other customers interviewed by Bloomberg
> also had trouble getting into their apartments.

> “Oyo operated like they were driving a Ferrari, instead of a hatchback,”
> said Taito Ito, executive officer at Japan Accommodation and Lodging
> Foundation, a hotel industry group handling about a dozen complaints against
> the company from its members. “It’s difficult to see this business going
> anywhere in Japan.”

[...]

> many employees joined under temporary contracts through an outside recruiter
> with a plan of making them full time after six months. When that time came,
> Oyo tried to cut salaries for a number of them as much as 50 percent,
> according to former employees and copies of documents seen by Bloomberg
> News.

> Alarmed by worker complaints, SoftBank sent its own compliance staff into
> Oyo for a weeklong internal audit, the people said. In the end, Agarwal’s
> management withdrew the low-ball offers and said the revisions were an
> administrative mistake.

> Several former Oyo Life employees, [..] described a chaotic, disorganized
> work environment. The company poached executives from top-tier consulting
> and technology firms who excelled at inspirational talk but had little
> understanding of real estate and even less patience for the industry’s slow-
> moving ways, the people said. One of them said the real estate industry just
> doesn’t run on startup time.

> In one instance, the company placed a ¥100 million ($910,000) furniture
> order with Japanese maker Takumi Otsuka, clinching the deal with a
> handshake. A month later, Oyo canceled even though the manufacturer had
> already set up a dedicated line and began production, according to staff
> from Oyo.

> With so much energy focused on sales, customer service suffered. One Oyo
> Life tenant said he moved into his room to find bed sheets and covers, but
> no bed or mattress to put them on. After facing a prospect of sleeping on
> the floor for a week, he hauled over a futon from his parents’ house.

> Yutaro Kondo, a 25-year-old entrepreneur, paid ¥86,000 for a 21-square-meter
> studio about an hour by train from central Tokyo. While a premium to similar
> listings, the contract covered internet access, all utilities and the last
> month free of rent. But he didn’t have heat for weeks so he moved out in
> December. Shortly after, he got a bill for the month that was supposed to be
> free.

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chewz
Interesting clash between total quality culture and pretend and cheat culture.

