India’s Oyo Buys Iconic American Motel Chain Motel 6 for $525 Million

Motel 6 Acquired by Oyo

India-based hotel oper­a­tor Oyo has acquired the icon­ic Amer­i­can bud­get motel chain Motel 6 in a $525 mil­lion all-cash deal. The trans­ac­tion also includes the pur­chase of the Stu­dio 6 extend­ed stay brand.

Significant Milestone for Oyo

Oyo, found­ed in India over a decade ago, has been rapid­ly expand­ing its foot­print in the U.S. mar­ket in recent years. CEO Ritesh Agar­w­al called the Motel 6 acqui­si­tion a “sig­nif­i­cant mile­stone” for the start­up com­pa­ny’s inter­na­tion­al growth.

Blackstone’s Sale of Motel 6

Motel 6’s pre­vi­ous own­er, pri­vate equi­ty firm Black­stone, had pur­chased the brand for $1.9 bil­lion in 2012. Black­stone says the sale gen­er­at­ed over $1 bil­lion in prof­it dur­ing its ownership.

Motel 6’s Storied History

Motel 6 was found­ed in 1962 in San­ta Bar­bara, Cal­i­for­nia by local build­ing con­trac­tors William Beck­er and Paul Greene. The chain aimed to pro­vide low-cost motel rooms, orig­i­nal­ly priced at $6 per night.

Oyo’s U.S. Expansion Plans

Oyo cur­rent­ly oper­ates 320 hotels across 35 U.S. states and plans to add 250 more this year as part of its aggres­sive Amer­i­can expan­sion. The com­pa­ny says the Motel 6 acqui­si­tion will be “instru­men­tal” in its future growth.

Transition of an American Icon

The sale of the quin­tes­sen­tial Amer­i­can motel brand Motel 6 to an Indi­an hos­pi­tal­i­ty com­pa­ny marks a sig­nif­i­cant shift in the own­er­ship and glob­al­iza­tion of the U.S. hos­pi­tal­i­ty industry.