Hello Friends!!
Happy days to you!
I am Sumit Malhotra, Founder – HomeStayXP, writing to you about my journey and that of HomeStayXP.com. It is the story of quite a few setbacks, bottlenecks & challenges, that were braved to bring HomeStayXP to the front.
In 2020, as the pandemic hit, I knew I couldn’t pursue everything that I used to for maybe a long time. I was also immobilised business wise with my mother being in the hospital trying to recover bravely from a series of brain strokes. The focus was all on her so that she could find her recovery and come out of the red and back home.
My entire family was anyways more or less confined to home and, then the pandemic struck and nationwide lockdown was ordered, thus limiting movement of the entire 1.38 billion population of India as a preventive measure against the COVID-19 pandemic in India.
While we were attentive towards my mother primarily, enterprises suffered and many other families got destroyed, devastating a lot of individuals both emotionally and financially. My restaurant folded and technology business stagnated very badly. It still is in the same state.
The feeling was that of a failure and I was under a lot of stress because of my mother and an almost shutdown of the business. Conversations with friends didn’t help because of their own helplessness. I even asked a few to give me job and didn’t get a response or faced a decline.
I had bottomed out and that provided me with just one option.
And, that option was of that of to look upwards, think, plan and move ahead.
I realised the lockdown was a great opportunity to design and develop what people could use (owners & users both) viz. hospitality without spending extravagantly.
The pandemic has affected the hospitality and tourism industry quite adversely. International tourists are still keeping away as I am writing this document. On the other side, people of India are still trying to find various affordable formats to utilise for their vacation.
Newer terminology for this purpose like staycation and workation also evolved defining the purpose of a vacation. After months of being stuck in their homes, people were yearning to get out and bond with their loved ones in a sure-safe manner.
As a result, HomeStays started to get a preferred treatment over luxury hotels during the pandemic. Because of their smaller format, they are easier to sanitise, maintain and operate than bigger precincts.
I ascertained individuals and families were gravitating towards HomeStays due to the hygiene and cost effectiveness factor. For homestay owners, this proposed to bring to them a lucrative opportunity to make some money in these difficult time.
To ensure hygiene value offering for visitors, HomeStayXP aspires to be the only aggregator platform in India that personally visits and verifies all Homestays before listing them on homestayxp.com. The three listings (Kasauli & Kanatal) on the portal as of now, have been personally visited by me.
So, HomeStayXP evolved with a triple intention to consolidate & present the HomeStay Experience for seekers and present it out to you much easier form that before affordably. And, for home owners seeking to make money, HomeStayXP provide a listing (almost a microsite) totally free of charge.
In essence, I aspire to create an honest & direct interactive experience that connects people from all over the world.
We will have a modest revenue model for sure, however, not from commission from bookings at your HomeStay but from a premium listing that will help you advertise & consolidate your listing on search engines like Google & Bing.
You can simply call me direct on +91981 020 5565 and find out more about it, if you intend to subscribe. I invite you to come on this journey with me and help all of us to go forth and build our network.
Best wishes to all you seekers. May we all win.
