‘Covid made holiday homes mainstream’
₹19 crore in pre-Series A round from venture capital firm Sixth Sense Ventures in 2018, turned profitable in 2023, following the post-covid demand revival. At present, 236 properties are live, and 54 more are being exclusively branded and marketed by the platform, the company said. About two years ago, it had about 125 properties.
Apart from direct bookings, around 35% of its business comes from online travel agencies and other distribution channels like Booking.com, Makemytrip and Airbnb. The company competes with the likes of Lohono Stays and StayVista. Its average booking size is around ₹35,000 and average duration of stays is 1.75 room nights per booking or family.
In FY22, it had posted revenues of ₹30 crore, and in FY23 it was up at ₹44.5 crore. It expects to clock 60% rise this fiscal year to ₹70-73 crore, Parulekar said. “We are seeing unlocking of land and people are building more holiday homes because they can see a return on investment if they are able to give out their homes on rent when they don’t use the property.
A vacation home can offer up to 5% annual returns to owner," he added. Parulekar said in most cases, home owners get about 40% in profit and have similar investment in running the property. “The best thing covid did for us was to make this type of holiday more mainstream." “In the next five years, we will be a ₹500 crore gross revenue entity with 1,200-1,300 homes," he added.
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