Small Medium Enterprise Development Bank Malaysia Bhd (SME Bank) yesterday inked a Memorandum of Understanding with OYO Rooms Hospitality Sdn Bhd (OYO) to provide an opportunity for budget hotels to improve their quality of services.

SME Bank group president /chief executive officer, Aria Putera Ismail, said the collaboration would benefit its customers who are budget hotel operators.

“Through this, hoteliers will have access to OYO’s services as an initiative to improve and enhance the standard of services provided.

“Indirectly, we are able to help the SMEs boost the number of bookings and profitability of their business,” he said in a statement yesterday.

Aria said OYO’s business partners also have the opportunity to obtain financing from the bank such as the Special Fund for Tourism 3 launched earlier this year.

“In addition, SME Bank also offers financing for working capital and asset purchase as well as entrepreneur development programmes provided by our subsidiary, Centre for Entrepreneur Development and Research Sdn Bhd (CEDAR),” Aria added.

SME Bank’s vision is to become the leading SME ecosystem that provides services beyond financing, he said, noting that this is one of the bank’s initiatives to help SMEs improve the quality of budget hotel services in Malaysia.