The tourism industry in India has grown considerably over the years; however, the majority of the potential still lies within the ambit of conventional hotels and travel agencies. This is where HomestaysBnB, an innovator platform created by entrepreneur Prashant Unnikrishnan, aims at bringing about change in the form of a digital platform wherein the tourism sector will bring in profit not just for the accommodation providers, but for the local economy as a whole.
Based out of Ranchi, this platform is going to help connect travelers to more than just homestays, villas, and guest houses. Rather, it is set to bring into the ambit of this digital platform, not just homestays, but the local tour guides, property managers, chefs, photographers, and channel partners as well.
HomestaysBnB will not be just another booking website where people make only reservations but it will allow users to become active participants of different professional activities from a single user profile. In fact, those who qualify will be able to perform different functions in their profiles – to run properties and sell other types of experience that will bring money to them without keeping additional profiles.
The important thing that the company will introduce in its new booking website is the Trust Score system, which will give the best results to verified users and will punish for any misleading information, cancellation of reservations and violating the rules. Besides, the company will work on identity verification and on other important things like KYC (Know Your Customer) and property verification to attract more guests to its website. For the people who are unable to control their properties on a daily basis, the company will also create the marketplace for trusted property managers.
Finally, for travelers there will be the opportunity to book local chefs for traditional dishes and experienced residents as tour guides.
“Our vision is to ensure that tourism income reaches local families, entrepreneurs and service providers – not just large hotels or established travel companies,” said Prashant Unnikrishnan, Founder of HomestaysBnB.
This platform will also assist independent accommodation providers, which include homestay owners, farm stay owners, villa owners, apartment owners, guest house owners especially those destinations where hotels are still not developed. Through making this accommodation visible to the travelers through digital means, the company believes that this will help in promoting tourism outside metropolitan cities and to less known destinations.
According to the company’s business model, each transaction will have the ability to create demand for various services, which include housekeeping services, transportation services, catering, photography, laundry, event assistance, and crafts. Through integrating all these services into one platform, the company believes that more money from the tourism industry will remain within the destination as opposed to taking it out of the destination.
The platform itself is part of a wider strategy towards entrepreneurship. The homemakers can provide traditional food, the younger generation can guide the tourists and even take pictures, the retired property owners can earn by renting out their homes and the locals can also be channel partners or property managers. This decentralized approach will help in ensuring that there are income opportunities without having to move to big cities.
Unnikrishnan, who has had entrepreneur experience in sectors like consultancy, recruitment, events management, and interior designing, mentions that the concept came up after realizing various gaps in the homestay industry, which include fragmented property management, lack of any verification system, and the lack of integration of any local services.
While HomestaysBnB is preparing for scaling up, the vision of HomestaysBnB goes far beyond just being another platform providing accommodation facilities. With its help, the aim of creating a tourism network consisting of travelers, property owners, and local service providers altogether can be accomplished.