Kahini Chakraborty – Mumbai
Launched in 2014, GuestHouser.com is focusing on increasing its inventory to 2,50,000 from India and select cities overseas across 12-18 months. Presently the company has over 50,000 properties across different categories. With an aim to build India’s largest privately curated network, the properties listed on the platform range from affordable accommodation to curated and exotic villas, cottages, hilltop bungalows, beach villas, houseboats, heritage havelis, heritage palaces, treehouses, yachts, etc.
Speaking to Food & Hospitality World, Dhruv Sharma, CEO and founder, GuestHouser.com said, “We have reached out to about 11,000 towns and cities and hill stations in India and each of these places we have found private retreats. We have recently also expanded in Indonesia, Thailand and few other countries as well. Over a period of time we do want to expand our international presence. Presently, our plans for 2016 is focussed only on the India market to provide unique accommodation experiences to domestic travellers as well as inbound travellers. We have invested about Rs 65 lakh while setting up the company. We have grown organically and now we will be aggressively undertaking brand building and marketing initiatives. The company has been witnessing a business revenue growth of 120 per cent month on month in the last six-seven months. In the last one year of operations, the company has been able to raise funding of approximately Rs five crore. Going forward we are looking at investing in technological upgradation to handle more number of bookings in the future.”