Cofounder Amit Damani told ET that the startup was valued at Rs 220 crore after the funding round.
The startup partners with luxury villa owners and provides them with manpower, operational expertise and marketing through its app and website.
“We take the entire property as a management contract and we are responsible for the entire management and marketing of these properties,” said Damani. “We are a hospitality brand; we are a young brand which is focussed on bringing quality and standards of experience to the entire villa space.”
It operates about 500 villas pan-India and provides an “entire experience” to customers by taking care of food, housekeeping, music, sightseeing and other services. This is different from Airbnb, which does not operate or manage homestays.
Damani said the company, founded in 2015, saw an opportunity as there was a lack of “experienced focussed brands”.
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The investment will aid the brand expand its footprint across the country to over 2,500 villas.
The company’s key customer base is people who travel in groups and the average ticket size is about Rs 25,000, Damani said.
StayVista’s business model is to charge a commission of about 30% on the total ticket size.
Last year, the company made a revenue of about Rs 100 crore and aims to generate Rs 1,000 crore in 3-4 years.
By partnering with StayVista, property owners can get a yield of 8% compared to the 2-3% yield the real estate market generates, he said.
The company focuses on onboarding two categories, getaway destinations, which includes destinations near big cities like Delhi and Bengaluru, and holiday destinations like Goa and Kerala.
“Vacation rentals are one of the fastest growing segments in hospitality, where multiple brands have scaled massively across geographies,” said Hari Premkumar, head of India, DSG Consumer Partners. “In India as well, we expect the segment to expand further and StayVista is well poised to make the most of this opportunity and build a category-defining brand in villa rentals.”
