Yash Kumar, a tech professional from Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh, once earned over ₹2 crore annually in the United States and lived the quintessential American dream. But a road trip across India in 2018 stirred something deeper in him. During his travels, he noticed a glaring gap in India’s homestay ecosystem: thousands of small homestay owners were struggling to manage bookings on global OTA platforms like Airbnb and MakeMyTrip.
Yash realised that most of these hosts—often over 40 and less tech-savvy—were intimidated by complex apps, language barriers, and hefty commissions. While hotels leveraged sophisticated tech tools, homestay owners faced low occupancy and limited digital visibility. His research revealed a fragmented market of 2.75 lakh homestays in India, of which only 60% were online—and mostly on just one or two platforms.
Building a New-Age Homestay Platform from Scratch
Despite his lucrative job in America, Yash couldn’t ignore the entrepreneurial pull. In January 2023, while still in the US, he began developing a prototype of a travel-tech platform aimed at empowering Indian homestay hosts. By June that year, he formally launched Homeyhuts in Hyderabad with a remote team.
In April 2024, Yash and his wife took a bold leap: they sold their properties, quit their jobs, and returned to India to work full-time on Homeyhuts. Initially piloting in Uttarakhand, the startup gained traction with the launch of its ‘Managed by Homeyhuts’ service in November 2024, which now supports over 500 homestays across Goa, Himachal, Telangana, and Uttarakhand.
India’s First No-Commission OTA Goes Live
In June 2025, Yash launched ‘Host It Yourself’, India’s first no-commission OTA service. Available on the Homeyhuts app, it allows homestay owners to manage listings, prevent double bookings, and access AI-powered, multilingual tools for just ₹490 per month.
So far, over 100 properties have signed up, with 20 new applications arriving daily. The bootstrapped company has already crossed ₹1 crore in gross transactions and ₹12 lakh in revenue since November 2024. With a 20-member team and eyes set on 50,000 listings, Yash aims to make Homeyhuts the go-to platform for India’s homestay revolution.