The document discusses community management at Stayzilla, an Indian startup that offers homestays. It describes the author's internship responsibilities, which included visiting homestay properties, verifying amenities, uploading property details, and addressing owner concerns. It also analyzes Stayzilla's branding and business model, identifies different types of property owners, and provides recommendations to improve the verification process and technological support for owners.

1. Community Management
by
Anurag Awasthi
Under the Guidance of
Mr. Arun Panda,
Marketing Manager,
Stayzilla.com
SCHOOL OF INSPIRED LEADERSHIP
GURGAON

2. 1
Anurag Awasthi | Internship Project | September 28, 2015
Community Management
STAYZILLA

3. 2
CERTIFICATE
This is to certify that Mr. Anurag Awasthi has successfully completed the project titled
“Community Management”, in Stayzilla. It is an independent research work done under
my supervision during Summer Internship. It is being submitted to the School of Inspired
Leadership in partial fulfillment for the award of the program completion Certificate.
Signature of Project Guide Signature of Faculty Guide
Designation Designation
Company Stamp Institute Stamp

4. 3
Acknowledgements
The report has one author but a multitude of collaborators. I am profoundly thankfully to
the team I was working with at Stayzilla to help me on this successful journey. Visiting 100+
properties, covering 8 cities in a span of 24 days would not have been possible without the
immense support from my colleagues/college mates Ritika, Arjun and the community
management team from Stayzilla.
I would like to extend my gratitude to my mentor Mr. Anirudh Patil who, with his is
experience at McKinsey & Company, helped my how to manage this multicity hop without
letting it taking any toll on my mental and physical health.
I am also grateful to my honorary teachers at School Of Inspired Leadership, who with their
deep understanding over different subjects have groomed me to perform in such a better
way that I could actually leave a mark for our college at Stayzilla. The concepts of
Organizational Behavior taught by Ma’am Renu actually helped me a lot while I was visiting
different homestays and talking to owners from different communities and different
mindsets.
The support of parents and friends can never be ignored in anything a person achieves. I
would like to thank my friend Somil Kumar in Bangalore who helped me in any way he
could in Bangalore from locating my office to help me catch my flight back to Gurgaon. My
family stayed in touch with me throughout my internship and always had my back while I
was travelling between different cities and handling tough assignments.
At last, this note of gratitude goes for the support of different property owners in
Maharashtra, Goa and Gujarat who interacted with me throughout my internship and
patiently supported me in the work I was doing for them and myself.

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Table of contents
....................................................................................................................................................... 1
CERTIFICATE ..............................................................................................................................2
Acknowledgements .....................................................................................................................3
About Stayzilla............................................................................................................................ 6
Mission..................................................................................................................................... 6
Vision ....................................................................................................................................... 6
Values....................................................................................................................................... 6
Introduction.................................................................................................................................7
Methodology............................................................................................................................... 8
Interpretation.............................................................................................................................. 9
External Branding (Company – Customers)............................................................................. 9
Internal Branding (Company – Employees) ............................................................................. 9
Interactive Branding (Customers – Employees)...................................................................... 10
3C analysis.................................................................................................................................. 10
Customer ................................................................................................................................ 10
Competitor.............................................................................................................................. 10
Corporation ............................................................................................................................ 10
Learnings & Recommendations.................................................................................................11
Types of property owners .......................................................................................................11
Business Runners .................................................................................................................11
Old people living alone.........................................................................................................11
Disintegrated families......................................................................................................... 12
Professional service apartments......................................................................................... 12
Outsourced apartments...................................................................................................... 12
Rented flat owners............................................................................................................... 12
University/college committees ........................................................................................... 12
Recommendations ................................................................................................................. 13
Features to handle extended stays...................................................................................... 13
Detailed updates of homestay occupancy.......................................................................... 13

6. 5
Short and crisp verifications............................................................................................... 13
Tie ups with previously run local organizations................................................................ 14
Conclusion ................................................................................................................................. 15
Customer Insights............................................................................................................... 15
Market Understanding........................................................................................................ 15
Comparison to other similar businesses ............................................................................ 16
Value Proposition................................................................................................................ 16
City environment................................................................................................................. 17

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About Stayzilla
Stayzilla is a startup valued at 500Cr as of date. The last one year has produced a growth
rate of over 100% to the company; the organization started 10 years before and was primarily
focused on providing hotel bookings to customers. With over 450 employees and two
locations spread over Chennai and Bangalore, the company is foraying into homestay
business now. The business model of the homestay business is simple, homestay owners
can list their property in Stayzilla and for each booking coming through Stayzilla, 12-15%
goes to Stayzilla and the rest to them.
It has a typical startup culture wherein autonomy is provided on the condition of owning
the responsibility of the work. The work is assigned and how to go about it is totally under
the discretion of the employee. The tasks are demanding and has to be completed within
the stipulated timeframe. The culture is employee friendly wherein open door
communication is facilitated with the top management. The faculties like free coffee,
cookies and others encourage the employees and make them happy. The CEO of the
company is friendly to all and there is no evident politics within the organization.
The employees are taken from diverse backgrounds and diversity by enlarge facilitates
anyone to easily blend in. expectations to deliver good performance and the productivity
measurement are stringent. The pay scale and other aspects are hefty and the employees
are happy working there. The work load is heavy and irrespective of that all employees
seems to be totally committed to deliver. The company stresses on quality for service.
MISSION
To offer an online portal for most comfortable accommodations anywhere in India.
VISION
To offer the users the best of deals not just in terms of prices but in terms of the overall
Stay experience.
VALUES
 Dynamic work environment that fosters innovation
 Put customers first

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Introduction
Stayzilla has created a significant place among the different businesses that offer stays to
people visiting cities all over India. In its own words, the company specializes in the market
of offering alternate stays. Until 2011, the company specialized in hotels, lodges and other
structured stays across India but recently, decided to tap the upcoming homestays market
of India. It also create a record of covering 7500+ household in a span of 40 days across
India.
Overall, the stays market comprises of 3 types of stay facilities namely Structured
accommodation, unstructured accommodation and homestays.
 Structured Accommodations – Hotels chains, suites, resorts
 Unstructured Accommodations – Small hotels, lodges, service apartments
 Homestays – Home owners ready to share 1 or more room with guests
Now, the credibility of Hotel chains is usually signified by the brand name they build for
themselves over several years of their operation and the professionalism with which they
provide hospitality. This brand name not only gives those regular customers but also a
leverage of raising their price for the service offerings. Consider a student visiting a city like
Mumbai for a 2 day seminar he has to attend in Andheri. Now, given that due to absence of
any cheap accommodations nearby he opts for a budget hotel, he doesn’t need much of
room service or hotel amenities during the day as most of his time is spent at the seminar
and he barely needs a place to sleep and get ready. More than 40% of the money he invested
in his stay was actually never experienced by this student.
To meet the above needs, the business of homestays is picking up in the Indian scenarios.
The concept has already taken many countries by storm forcing many hotels to bring
modularity in their models and offer cheap services. However, there is no limit of cost saving
in this option. The model is very successful in Europe and the US where the students travel
often for bi-weekly, multiple days attending seminars in different Universities.
Stayzilla is foraying into homestay business wherein they facilitate people to book rooms in
homestay’s across different locations, the project is associated with the same, and the task
for me included the following responsibilities
1) Visit the properties and talk to the owners about their experience in their businesses
2) Verify the amenities at properties and analyze whether they are good for stay
3) Upload the details into the dashboard system of Stayzilla.
4) Clarify any inhibitions that arise among the people who have opted for listing the
properties
5) Seek concerns that haven’t been covered by the existing system both for Homestays
owners and Properties owners.
6) Seek any existing opportunities that are beneficial for Stayzilla for its expansion.

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Methodology
As highlighted by the responsibilities assigned, the project had defined a very clear scope
and method of implementation of duties. Indian scenario has so far not been found ready
to let homestays business propagate due to several cultural taboos and security concerns.
The concerns include nuisance, theft, injury, abuse or overpowering in case of senior citizen
hosts. These concerns were not only highlighted by hosts offering their property but also
the guests on various seminars conducted by Stayzilla in different regions. To address such
issues Stayzilla has come up with the verification process. In the verification process, a
community manager visits the different property proposed to be hosted by individual for
inviting guests at their place. These properties are evaluated with respect to their proximity
from nearby hospitals and police station. The commutability of the place was also checked
by mapping the distance of the property from airport, bus station and railway station.
For addressing the concerns of guests, the community manager, while writing the review,
gathers note about the host by validating him with an identity proof for recognition. He/she
also takes a note of the people who stay at the property all the time including the caretaker,
family member, watchman or maid/servant. The note on amenities being offered like Wi-
Fi, Check-In time, breakfast, parking, swimming people, etc. help the guest in deciding
which things he shall keep in his backpack and for which things he’ll need to make
arrangements. Now, had this been a hotel, the amenities would have been more or less
similar with room service at disposal, but in a homestay a person feels more homely and
thus requires amenities sufficient enough to meet their daily needs.

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Interpretation
The structure of homestays actually boosts up people’s lives taking part in it and gives them
a great platform to grow and foster community building. When a person decides to sign up
for staying in a homestay in a totally new country, he definitely gives away the room service
and the fancy views a hotel offers but instead receives a significant amount of saving, a
chance to stay with a family which could have been in the city for many years and would
offer their help happily throughout the stay. Indeed, it’s more of a personal touch and a
chance to experience “A home away from home”.
Homestays increase the bonding between the host and the guests. Whether one is hosting,
or staying there, an individual has the chance to meet someone new, explore new relations,
and learn about different cultures from the people who live it. Like the tagline of its new
commercial says, “Make space for something new.” the company plans to make difference
to the way people see the world. The concept of allowing a person whom one has never
known to come spend some days at ones place is daring and demands the traditional doubt
barriers to break.
The community management division of Stayzilla enables people to come together as a
community of individuals listing their place as a community. All of them will be connected
as a family and routed to a community manager. This community manager will act as a
SPOC (Single point of contact) for all the people of family to address their issues and
communicate their concerns to Stayzilla.
External Branding (Company – Customers)
 A platform where you can host your properties to provide good accommodation to
people at affordable prices.
 A company which offers cheap stays in most of the parts of the country with great
service.
 Provides Safe transactions
 Provides a concierge service which suffices emergency needs according to the
customers’ situation
Internal Branding (Company – Employees)
 A dynamic work environment which provides aggressive growth opportunities
 Great place to work with flexible work hours
 Keeps employees in the loop for all the plans that the company executes

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Interactive Branding (Customers – Employees)
 Allows the employee to take part in their hobbies extensively
 Allows the employees to travel often to different location
 Maintains a good work balance with the employees as they are able to handle their
chores easily.
3C analysis
CUSTOMER
 Focuses on making money, friends and giving a lifetime experience.
 Our customer is anyone who has a free bed, an individual room, vacant floor, villa,
farm house, house boat, tree house, container house or any livable space
 Customers of Stayzilla are basically budding entrepreneurs, as the pricing strategy
is in the hands of owner. Stayzilla provides advisory services for greater revenue
generation
 Cancellation policies can also be designed by customers, and they can chose their
own guests
COMPETITOR
 Set of competitors for Stayzilla
o Goibibo
o Makemytrip
o Cleartrip
o Agoda
o Oyo rooms
o Fab hotels
o Zo rooms
CORPORATION
 Estimated number of employees – 450
 Number of listed properties – 25000
 Room nights booked per day – 4000
 Company valuation – 500cr
 Currently revenue comprises of 78% of supplier share and 22% Stayzilla share
 Estimated revenue - $1mn
 Total funding raised - $20mn( via nexus ventures and matrix partners)
 No acquisitions as of now but 2nd most followed company on social media(FB and
Twitter)

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Learnings & Recommendations
During the visit to several cities and interacting with different types of property owners I
gathered ample understanding of outlooks of people towards listing their property on
Stayzilla. For some it’s just another business while some really rely on giving their place as
homestay. Their behavior towards me has ranged from amicable to skeptical. All these
varied experiences have actually broaden my outlook and helped me come up with
suggestions to the overall process and mobile applications for Stayzilla.
TYPES OF PROPERTY OWNERS
Type of Business
Owners
Acumen of
handling
homestays
Reason for
hosting
homestays
Needed
advisory
services
Technological
literacy of the
hosts
Business Owners Yes Dedicated
earning
No Aware
Old people living
alone
Some Loneliness,
earning
Yes Unaware
Disintegrated
families
Some Part time
earning,
loneliness
Yes, some Mostly aware
Professional service
apartments
Yes Dedicated
earning
No Mostly aware
Outsourced
apartments
Yes Part time
earning
Yes Unaware
Rented flat owners No Part time
earning
Yes Mostly aware
University/college
committees
No Responsible for
accomodation
No Unaware
Business Runners
These owners were very professional in what they expected from the property while they
were listing on the platform. They were clear about the different kinds of room they could
offer and the pricing they should charge for the room. They had a clear vision about how
they planned to handle their homestays ahead. These were the owners who had less
engaging or no jobs and were totally dedicated to their homestays business. They were
themselves not staying on most of their properties and used to manage their properties as
service apartments usually. They had their properties listed on other platforms like Goibibo,
Makemytrip and Airbnb as well.
Old people living alone
These were usually the senior members of the family who were staying in a big house and
their sons, grandsons, etc. had moved to different cities with their nuclear families. These

13. 12
property owners found it difficult to handle their homestays as business but were willing to
learn the system. They were a part of this business due to their need of staying alone in the
city and didn’t mind having a company. They mostly expected corporate or family guests at
their place as they were not willing to offer much services to them.
Disintegrated families
This group of property owners were usually from a joint family where different family
members had purchased nearby properties and one or two members stayed there. These
people had the understanding of Stayzilla model similar to the previous category but were
more enthusiastic about learning the system and comprised of mostly middle aged working
class. They were employed by different public/private businesses and were running this
business as part-time.
Professional service apartments
As the name suggests, these were dedicated service apartments built for targeting the
corporate clients. Unlike hotels, these were placed irrespective of their proximity to the
needs of the consumer and were usually offered as guest houses to corporates who managed
a cab service for their guests to pick them up.
The concept for them was to create some additional rooms and offer them to different
online travel aggregators.
Outsourced apartments
These were a bunch of apartments being run by local real estate agents. These agents had
little or no understanding of mobile applications but had good contacts with nearby
corporates and businesses which required guest rooms. These apartments were run as
service apartments and guest houses occasionally. Several of these had their own website
and infrastructure and considered Stayzilla as only an additional platform for their
exposure.
Another diversion to this categories were people who were willing to offer their property to
someone from Stayzilla since they were unable to manage it themselves. They had not listed
their property anywhere else since they were very particular about the type of guests they
wanted to keep.
Rented flat owners
These were a small set of some individuals who were willing to open their flats for short
duration while there flat mates were visiting abroad or placed by their company there. These
did not have a valid BnB license but were willing to take the ownership
University/college committees
These one of a kind group of property owners were already running a homestay service since
past 20+ years. These were committees of college teachers and local individuals who used

14. 13
to arranged stays for the people coming for the vocational courses in the summer/winter
session of different Universities and colleges. The concentration of such communities were
more in Pune, Mumbai region.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Features to handle extended stays
One of the major concerns of homestays owners was that most of them were not able to tell
their clients to vacate the premises if the booking from next day belonged to someone else.
For example, if a person has made the booking till 5th
of February and if the guests decided
to stay over for 3 more days on 5th
February, the homestay owner had no choice but to allow
it.
Recommendation: So, a consideration that can be made in this case is that if a homestay
is occupied while another future booking is being made within a week from the date of
occupancy, the next booking can be confirmed only by calling the homestay owners and
taking their approval. This will add extreme value in the customer relationship division.
Detailed updates of homestay occupancy
The homestays owners were often unclear about the booking of the person as the message
they received on a confirmed booking usually displayed the amount of booking and not the
timing or check out time of the guest.
Recommendation: The message sent to the homestay owner on confirmation of booking
shall clearly display the time of checkout for the person.
Short and crisp verifications
The verification form of the individual verification field agents is very lengthy in terms of
the amenities they have to get checked. The form is so long that it requires 20+ inputs in a
single page of the browser. Sometimes, the form doesn’t load completely. Even, whenever
an entry is missed or wrong, the error appears without highlighting in which question has
the user made an error. Also, it becomes difficult to drag such a long form down. A
verification personnel has to fill the complete form in presence of the property owner who
has given him his valuable time to show the property. It becomes really cumbersome in
capturing these inputs while a person is looking at their face.
Recommendations:
 App Like structure – It will be useful if capturing the form details is done through
mobile application which can store the data on the spot and sync it to the server
whenever the agent’s phone finds a stable mobile signal.
 Error report shall highlight the location – It will be useful if the error message
shows in which input is there an issue.

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 Remove redundant entries – There are redundant entries like those of mobile
network strength signal and the location of medical facilities. It is important that
only the necessary details are taken up as input when the person is in front of a host.
Tie ups with previously run local organizations
There are several communities who have been running the homestays business without any
online platform and mostly through the firefighting mechanism of calling relatives and
friends for making arrangements for their guests. The endorsement of such communities
are good for an upcoming business like Stayzilla
Recommendations: Coming up with a framework of registering these communities on the
platform as their credibility adds to Stayzilla’s business. Also, it would be good to offer them
some privileges for getting them onboard as they do not have an online platform for
interaction but they have an ample amount of guests for Stayzilla.

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Conclusion
Overall, the internship was an interesting mix of excitement, work, learning and serenity.
The days began with the roadmap of properties to visit since the morning to the evening
and ended up with the lessons learnt during the day whether by taking different routes or
talking to different people. The description provided by different property owners made me
understand how well-crafted the Stayzilla host application was. I was also able to
understand the shortcomings of the application in different regions.
The most amazing experience was of noting the difference of opinion among the property
owners for different regions. For the people of Pune, identification of guests, payment
procedure were the key interests while the people of Malvan, a small Taluka on Konkan
Coast, the most important aspect was knowing what amenities should they offer to people.
Similarly, the wealthy property owners of Gujarat were really skeptical about showing their
id proof while the people of small properties were ready with their proofs as they had no
income whatsoever to hide it. The people in Gujarat wanted homestay to run as a side
business while the small city residents actually depended on it.
The trip resulted in giving me useful insights about
Customer Insights
The following learnings were received about the customers
 Needs for hosting homestays are different in different regions
 Also, the reason for running homestays differs from region to region
 Most of the people running homestays within their place are unaware of the things
they should offer
 Hosts are usually hesitant in telling their hosts about vacating the place if they
extend their booking (Even when the next day has been booked by a different guest)
 Hosts value their relationship with Stayzilla if we personally visit their place and
encourage the visitors for writing reviews about their property
Market Understanding
The following learnings can be derived from the experience about the industry from the
visit
 Ahmedabad becoming a hotspot for future due to the implementation of BRTS
service
 In Pune, the outer region can be penetrated deeper due to the launch of new
Rainbow bus service.
 Both the above cities show a promising sign of growth which will invite guests to
these towns

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 The homestays business faces stiff competition with the cheap lodges as they are
ready to offer stays at lesser prices
 People still feel odd when booking a homestay and need to be connected in a more
friendly manner through our applications and platform
 Homestays owners tend to price their place higher without realizing the long term
effect.
 They are adamant in keeping the price high and consider themselves equivalent to
the hotels without realizing that the credibility comes once their homestays are
visited.
 Even when the hosts are aware that their property is disconnected from the city,
they seldom agree to help the guests in locating their place
Comparison to other similar businesses
 Stayzilla faces stiff competition with Oyo Rooms and the hosts
o They expect branding like Oyo does which gives them recognition from a
business nearby
o It makes them feel that Stayzilla is interested in running business with them
o They expect more involvement of Stayzilla in setting their prices and
maintaining places
 Airbnb is offering cheaper homestays in all the regions by fixing prices
 Since, the market is new and not mature, people feel that they need more guidance
to run their homestays like Oyo does for them by standardizing their place
 Agoda has a similar reach in the remote regions as Stayzilla and is investing in to
register more and more homestays everyday
 People are irritated with the businesses like Makemytrip and Goibibo as they make
the bookings without intimation to the owners creating several situations of
conflicts.
Value Proposition
Stayzilla offers the following propositions to the homestays owners over and above the other
similar businesses in play
 Freedom to maintain the homestay – the hosts can manage their homestay on
their own standards
 Flexibility of booking – Since, Stayzilla is a market place, it offers people to make
their homestay open for booking on their provided dates
 Flexibility of pricing – only advisory services are given related to pricing to the
homestays owners and not mandated
 Community Management – Communities of individuals are being created to be
led by a community manager who will act as a SPOC for all the problems and
concerns raised by the community members

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 Right to use other platforms – Giving the hosts freedom of tying up with other
ventures as well gives them a sense of trust in the business of Stayzilla. It creates an
impression that Stayzilla has confidence in delivering value in their business model
and at the same time offer the consumers of choosing the option they want
City environment
During my visit in 8 cities, I observed a variance in behavior and observed a trend in these
cities which favored growth to different type of business and thus inviting different types
of guests.
City State City type Main
Occupation
Homestays
businesses
Main Travellers
Ahmedabad Gujarat Cosmopolitan Textiles and
Government
offices
Part Time Businessmen
Pune Maharashtra Cosmopolitan All
businesses
Part Time Businessmen
Lonavala Maharashtra Town Tourism
industry
Full Time Tourists
Khandala Maharashtra Town Tourism
industry
Full Time Tourists
Malvan Maharashtra Taluka -
Sindhudurg
Cashew,
Fisheries
and Tourism
Full Time Suppliers/dealers
, Tourists
Sawantwadi Maharashtra Taluka -
Sindhudurg
Woodcraft ,
Tourism
Full Time Suppliers/dealers
Goa Goa Cosmopolitan,
Tourism
Tourism, IT,
Gov. Offices
Full Time Businessmen,
Toursits