These Rooms provide privacy to young Indian lovers. See complaints.

Privacy can be hard to come by in India. Life is a shared cycle of relatives, neighbors and friends. The city is full of people, and there are prying eyes everywhere.

Join Oyo, the popular hotel booking platform. The company, backed by big names in venture capital, has built a reputation as a gateway to “hotels” for unmarried couples. In the budget room, young lovers who might be allowed to steal a secret kiss in the corner of a public park or shopping center may exercise their passion behind closed doors.

Now, Oyo is shedding its image as a haven for relationships. This month, its policy guidelines were revised to allow some partner hotels to refuse rooms to young couples unless they provide proof of marriage.

So far the changes have only applied to Meerut, a large city northeast of New Delhi. The company said the new policy was in response to complaints from civil society groups and was developed “in line with local social sensitivities”.

Oyo’s actions prompted memes and backlash on social media, especially among 20-year-olds. For many, this has led to a clash between traditional values ​​and modern ideals that defines life for millions of young Indians.

Premarital sex is still largely taboo in this deeply conservative country, where marriages are arranged by families. It is widely seen as a bad import from the uninhibited West, and as an affront to Indian culture that should be arrested or left unrecognized.

The stigma surrounding premarital sex is about “family honor,” says Chirodip Majumdar, an associate professor at Rabindra Mahavidyalaya, a university in the eastern state of West Bengal. However, many young people are still doing it, according to the survey.

Attitudes about premarital sex vary by class, Mr. Majumdar said, with people with higher incomes viewing it more. “They have more scope for social interaction, more knowledge about birth control methods, more exposure to Western culture,” he said.

Many young Indians have also adopted liberal attitudes about dating and sexuality that transcend caste, caste and religion, where arranged marriages still often dictate.

Dating apps like Tinder are popular, as are relationships. A 2022 study published in the journal Sexuality & Culture found that 55 percent of young adults in four Indian cities “have had sex, suggesting that norms about sex.”

Neha, a 34-year-old consultant based in Bengaluru, said the couple rented an Oyo room twice a week when they were dating. Neha, who asked that his surname not be used, recalled the judgmental looks he often received from hoteliers, including those who do not use the Oyo platform.

In some hotels, the officials asked about their spouses before they were kicked out.

But Oyo became such a central part of their love story that when the couple tied the knot in 2017, their photo wedding invitations included a reference to the hotel scene.

“Everyone knows we use Oyo,” says Neha, adding, “So we put it on the wedding invitation.”

The lack of specific locations in India to engage in intimate relationships has created a market for companies like Oyo.

It is not uncommon to see young lovers secretly kissing in an almost empty movie theater or under the arches of abandoned monuments in Delhi’s summer heat. Bathrooms and dining rooms are all fair game. A cybercafe can be a homemaking area.

In the 2024 hit movie “All We Imagine as Light,” which explores the lives of three women in Mumbai, one of the characters finds a jungle to have sex with her boyfriend.

Manforce, which bills itself as India’s best-selling condom brand, last year aired a series of funny ads featuring couples doing it in private corners of public spaces — cars, parks, cinema.

Oyo was founded in 2013 and is backed by investment firms, including SoftBank. It expanded into the United States in 2019, and last year bought the Motel 6 chain.

In India, it offers rooms for 500 rupees, or less than $6, per night, no questions asked. The platform has become popular with small hotel owners, who by registering with Oyo are required to comply with the standards and use the brand.

On Google, one of the first search questions about Oyo is “Can I stay in Oyo with my girlfriend?” Although Oyo serves solo travelers and other customers, the company has relied on its image, offering room searches under the filter as a “communication modem.”

But now it is chasing more families.

In an ad released last year, a young couple sits at a dinner table with the woman’s family. Their marital status is unclear. After telling her father that she booked a weekend trip with Oyo, he looks at them and is horrified.

When the couple says it’s more fun with family, the bewildered father asks, “What are you talking about?” The next picture shows the whole family looking at the bright Oyo hotel. The father then said, “That’s what you’re talking about!”

Pragati KB contributed to the report.