Zostel Parent Elevates Aviral Gupta To CEO, Dharamveer Singh Chouhan Moves To Chairman Role

In a leadership shuffle, hostel chain Zostel parent Zo World has elevated its long-term executive Aviral Gupta to chief executive officer, while its cofounder and CEO Dharamveer Singh Chouhan has moved to the chairman role.

In his new role, Gupta, with expertise in hostel operations, strategy and tech, will help in fuelling the company’s India and global growth. He has been associated with Zostel for more than a decade, starting in 2014 as project manager and rose through the ranks to become chief strategy officer and HR head before taking over the CEO’s role. 

“We are building Zo not just as a travel brand, but as a lifestyle and cultural identity for the next generation,” said Gupta. 

Meanwhile, Chouhan, one of the cofounders, has been Zo World’s CEO since 2021, as per his LinkedIn profile. 

In the decade-long tussle between Zostel and OYO, the Supreme Court (SC) last week refused to entertain an appeal filed by Zostel against a Delhi High Court (HC) judgment that set aside a 2021 arbitral award against OYO’s parent Oravel Stays.

As per Bar and Bench, the SC observed that Zostel should have filed an appeal under Section 37 of the Arbitration and Conciliation Act (ACA) instead of directly approaching it by way of a special leave petition (SLP). As a result, Zostel reportedly withdrew the said petition.

The petition arose from a Delhi HC judgement, in May this year, on a plea filed by OYO under Section 34 of the ACA, 1996. The hospitality giant’s petition had challenged the arbitration tribunal’s 2021 ruling that held OYO liable for breaching a binding agreement in its acquisition of rival Zostel. The HC, in its order, set aside the arbitration tribunal’s ruling.

The HC reportedly said that the arbitral award passed in 2021 against hospitality major OYO in its dispute with rival Zostel Hospitality violated public policy as it was based on a term sheet that was not binding.

The OYO-Zostel legal stand-off between the two startups began in 2015, when OYO signed a non-binding term sheet to acquire the rival, which then was known as ZO Rooms. 

As part of the deal, ZO Rooms’ shareholders were supposed to receive a 7% equity stake in OYO. The proposed amalgamation fell through after a couple of years, leading to both parties filing legal cases and FIRs against each other. In 2021, the arbitration tribunal ruled in favour of Zostel, leading the hostel chain to undertake legal proceedings to enforce its rights.

Four years later, the HC also set aside the arbitral award that entitled Zostel to up to a 7% stake in OYO’s parent. The court ruled that the agreement for the acquisition of Zostel’s budget hotel offering, Zo Rooms, signed between both the parties in 2015 was expressly non-binding and could not be enforced.