Airbnb

India & You

Nov-Dec 2015

An apartment in Delhi to rent on Airbnb

The sharing accommodation platform is spreading across India as well after doing tremendously well in cities such as Paris and New York.

Airbnb has already reached a milestone in Europe with the continent alone representing half of company’s business. India being the growing economy and with a population of more than a billion was an obvious next market for the company that was founded in 2008 in San Francisco. With a shortage of hotels to accommodate the growing number of tourists, India offers a great market place to a business model like Airbnb where the company doesn’t own any property itself and generates income as part of the booking fee from every transaction. Many Indian households and property owners are now renting the extra spaces in their apartments or even villas or any spare property they have. Through this sharing economy platform, they offer their guests the comfort of staying at a homelike environment and treat them with homemade breakfast. It gives people from all over the world an opportunity to live like the locals and experience the real India.

Last winter Anna Concollato, who works in the poultry sector in Bergen, Hordaland (a region in Norway) along with her group planned to go to meet her friend in India, and stumbled upon Airbnb in India. “I honestly did not think that Airbnb was also present in India, but I could see that it works very well in the country and that was a huge bonus,” says Anna. She also talks about the deals the site had to offer for her India trip and how she found an accommodation with very welcoming host and luxurious surroundings. For foreigners choosing Airbnb to find an accommodation in India raises numerous questions about safety issues that come along with the idea of staying at somebody’s place. However, for Anna safety was well taken care of as she adds, “The landlord did not interfere in any way in our privacy. Our room was kept locked in our absence. There was a 24×7 security guard at the main gate of the building.” Talking about her experience with Airbnb in India she seemed extremely content with the price point as well and goes on to recommend the platform to all the people who for business or pleasure have to travel to India and want a comfortable accommodation in peace and happiness.

Looking at the success of Airbnb, there are many existing players in the lodging segment that are now coming up with similar models such as Stayzilla, an Indian online marketplace for accommodation that has launched a new market segment where people can rent out rooms in their homes. Another new entrant in this segment is misterbnb, founded in 2013 in Paris that caters to the lodging needs of gay men and has now spread across more than 130 countries. Many budget hotel companies in India such as OYO Rooms and ZO Rooms are also spurting up to capture this budding market segment offering travellers comfortable, affordable and reliable stays with Wi-Fi and breakfast added. Indeed Airbnb has changed the way people used to travel and perhaps has opened a zillion opportunities for people around the world.