Was Oyo Caught Using Fake Hotel Names, AI to Trick Vegas Guests?

^{Who knew all it took for a successful rebrand was a little AI and some imaginary lipstick? ("Photo": via Oyorooms.com)}

LAS VEGAS -- OYO Hotel & Casino Las Vegas is using alias names to attract guests, and they’re not even hiding it. On its own website, Oyo lists the following three properties on the same plot of land:

• Oyo Las Vegas: 115 E. Tropicana Ave.
• Palette Las Vegas: 117 E. Tropicana Ave.
• Collection O: 119 E. Tropicana Ave.

The hotels are also available to book through popular Online Travel Agents (OTAs), including Expedia, Orbitz and Booking.com. Amazingly enough, Oyo has a 3.5 rating on Expedia, while the alias names have only two stars.

The two aliases use a combination of real pictures from Oyo and AI renderings that change the name from Oyo to Palette or Collection O. As of Thursday morning, rooms for Palette Las Vegas were listed for $10 more than Oyo and Collection O. 

Descriptions on Oyo’s website for the alias hotels are identical, except for the names. Oyo has slightly different information but is close enough that it could have been written by an AI LLM. The lazy part of all of this is that all three descriptions list the properties at 115 E. Flamingo Ave, Oyo’s address, instead of 117 or 119, which they show when booking the hotels.

Discovering Deception

Ariana Patino was the first person known to discover the alias hotels and shared the details on TikTok. She wanted to avoid Oyo because of bad reviews when visiting for the Karol G concert at Allegiant Stadium. She thought she did…but was wrong.

Patino says Oyo is using the alias names to see which is more popular with guests. She asked if her group could cancel the reservations because of false advertising and was told yes, but there would be a $200 fee. The hotel has a 48-hour cancellation policy for anyone looking for a refund.

Her review of the room seems to confirm why she didn’t want to stay at Oyo in the first place. The air conditioning in the room was weak, there was poor lighting, and the elevators stopped working.

Casinos.com reached out to Oyo for comment on the matter, but did not hear back prior to publication. We are curious to find out if this was an intentional name game or marketing misstep. 

What Is an Oyo?

Many visitors know Oyo Las Vegas as the low rolling casino across the street from MGM Grand and next to the construction site for the Las Vegas A’s baseball stadium. The casino was most recently known as Hooters, and San Remo before that.

Oyo is the operating name of a global hospitality and hotel booking platform founded in India in 2013. Its parent company is named Prism. 

The company has 300 OYO-branded properties in 35 states in the U.S. It also owns Motel 6.

The company operates as a franchise and partners with independent budget hotels around the world. Like many large chains it standardizes basic operations and amenities.