HOW TO RUN A HOMESTAY
How to run a homestay: seven women owners weigh in
With the global pandemic, an overlooked branch of hospitality in India came into the spotlight. For their personalised experience and crowd-free accommodation, travellers began flocking to homestays like never before, while homeowners saw a boosted source of income that fed their passion for hosting. So where once homestays had remained largely undiscovered and under-represented in the remotest parts of India, today people across the country are opening their homes to guests. But running a homestay is not just about creating that Airbnb listing or sharing meals with strange travellers. The experience can be different for different hosts, depending on more factors than one would realise. While there are some basics you need to have in order–more on that here–we spoke to seven women on the little extra it takes to run a women-led homestay.
Make your space in the community
Sure, location plays an important role in how you set up your homestay. But with the location, comes its community, and with the community, comes complexity. In a country where even stepping out solo as a woman can attract stares in some parts of the country, welcoming strangers into one’s house can get tricky for some. Alka Shesha and her daughter Prachi Chaphekar talk about how the community in Panchgani refused to accept them in the beginning. The duo opened Avabodha in 2019 after buying a plot of land in the village. “But when they see a woman in charge, it’s easy for men to feel they can overpower her,” says Prachi. While sometimes the labour would refuse to transport raw materials for them, at other times groups of men would land up claiming ownership over their land. But Alka knew that nothing could salvage the situation like peace and patience. “You have to make the first step towards befriending them. They’re a close-knit community already, and you’re the one who has a desire to live there,” she says.
Kakoli Banerjee, who turned the first house she restored as a preservationist into a homestay, faces similar challenges. Currently, she runs two homestays in Puducherry–Gratitude Heritage and Kariappa House–and several others across India. She also reiterates the importance of making friends in the community. She started by getting a voter card in Puducherry, following it with work in community development until the MLA knew she was an ally worth having. “I also make friends with local cops and female police officers who get posted here. It helps to have connections and it's empowering to know that I have friends here,” she says. It’s what has helped her in dealing with everything from a rowdy monopoly of unloaders in Puducherryto unfairly hiked fees despite having proper licensing for her business.
“Here in our village, the reaction of locals changes upon seeing our MTDC-approved board, and they don’t bother us.”
Anuja Phadke
Which is why your licensing and documentation should be in order–so that, as Kakoli puts it, nobody can raise a finger. This will inspire self-confidence in your work as a host, and will lend credibility to what you’re doing in the face of any scepticism. Anuja Phadke and Sneha Mahashabde, who run The Kokum Tree in Raigad and Caju Grove in Goa, agree, “It’s not a big thing, but it is important, so that you’re not in trouble if there is ever a problem. Here in our village, the reaction of locals changes upon seeing our MTDC-approved board and they don’t bother us.”
Hire the right people
For Alka and Prachi, the one friend who helped open gates into the community was Kalpana Parthe, the local sarpanch and their new neighbour in Panchgani. “When labourers stopped transporting material, she collected the men of the village to come help us. Soon, she took over the role as the property’s caretaker as well,” she tells us. So connect with women in your community, and hire female staff wherever possible. “It’s tough when you’re a woman in business, for people refuse to take you seriously,” says Kakoli. After dealing with people who constantly questioned her expertise for years, she now only works with female contractors, bank managers and staff wherever possible. Sneha and Anuja also feel more comfortable working with women at home. But for the duo, it has been tough to find women who are willing to stay at The Kokum Tree as full-time caretakers. So don’t shy away from hiring who is right for you as well as for your home. Hiring can go wrong with anyone and for any reason, but taking precautionary measures helps–install CCTV cameras in all common areas of the house, and consider having staff quarters built separate from your host and guest unit. Conduct background checks, keep copies of their IDs, and if feasible, register them as your staff at the local police station. “In Goa, in fact, that’s mandatory,” says Anuja.
And get to know your guests (before they arrive)
As important as it is to filter who lives in your house, it is to filter who visits. Alka and Prachi have a no-stags policy, not just for safety but also out of respect for the conservative community they’ve set up in. Kakoli, who likes to host all kinds of guests, maintains a no-walk-ins policy. There’s a pre-booking questionnaire on her website, and by the time a guest arrives, she has already communicated with them via email or a booking platform. The power of saying no cannot be overstated, as all our female hosts agree. So if a guest is busy looking for amenities when your house is built around simple living, or if there’s someone you don’t feel comfortable with, refuse with respect.
“Booking.com offers the greatest visibility, but I have no control over the people that book from there.”
Kakoli Banerjee
Shailza Dasgupta (of Homestays of India) says that being vocal about your house rules helps in refining the guest-host match. “It’s your house, so you decide how people will live under it, right?” Lay down policies around topics such as timings, alcohol consumption, outside guests, et cetera and iterate them strongly across marketting platforms and inside your house. Deviating from all the literature on how homestays are the place to meet and greet travellers, Sarmoli-based Himalayan Ark’s founder Malika Virdi says, “You can be as sociable as you like, but you have the right to draw physical, mental and emotional boundaries that you won’t allow to be transgressed. There should be no room for doubt when you sense an overstep, so that there’s no need for silence. There are woes that come with the tourism sector, more so in the homestay business where you’re letting someone into your space, so do not walk into it with a blind eye to possibilities.” And on the off chance that a guest still crosses a boundary, you should have important contact numbers handy–think of everyone from the local police station and hospital to friends in the neighbourhood.
Learn which platforms can help, and how
It’s important to know which third-party booking platforms work the best for you. Alka and Prachi list on SaffronStays, where guest queries are filtered as per their requirements and criteria. According to Kakoli, Booking.com offers the greatest visibility. “But I have no control over the people that book from there. I can’t get to know them as most people don’t notice if you message them. And the platform does not collect payment on behalf of Indian hosts,” she reveals, confessing that she lost a hefty chunk of revenue in the beginning, thinking her payments were being collected on her behalf. She swears by Airbnb’s support system, granting brownie points to the guest rating feature for its transparency. She tells us that MakeMyTrip’s homestay section offers a ‘request to book’ option, so a guest can’t just pay and book unless she accepts it. And when she does, locals and travellers are found mingling in the courtyard, making conversations, friendships and long-lasting memories. What fun!
All this, while dealing with the obvious
Every home is unique, as is each homeowner. But there are some bases that you will have to cover no matter what. So before getting into the details, think about some important aspects such as your budget, the market rate for a room and what sets your home apart from others. Running a homestay can be taxing, whether for the constant fire-fighting it requires or for the social skills. So weigh the pros and cons of running independently versus tying up with homestay communities for training or operational support. And while it’s natural to put thought into where you’re setting up your own home, do not forget to consider how turning it into a homestay will be influenced by your locale as well. As Anuja points out laughingly, “How do you maintain white linens in a village when the water itself has a portion of soil in it?”
टिप्पणियाँ
एक टिप्पणी भेजें