India's OYO, the company providing budget hotels and homestay services, has laid off close to 300 employees, according to a report from Livemint.

Most of the layoffs were employees from the operations team.

According to sources, this move comes as OYO had pivoted its business model from a minimum business guarantee model to a revenue-sharing model since the pandemic's outbreak.

This ultimately results in the company requiring fewer staff for operations.

“With this, 99% of Oyo’s franchise business will be revenue sharing, with only some properties still following a minimum guarantee assurance. In a bid to also automate several processes, Oyo has introduced newer tech deployments, which created further redundancies for the laid-off staff," the source mentions.

In December 2019, OYO raised $1.5 billion from SoftBank, valuing the company close to $10 billion.

Earlier this year, OYO laid off around 5,000 staff just before the nationwide lock-downs took place, and later furloughed employees and cutting salaries to extend their runway.