Apply HN: SimplyGuest – Furnished and Managed Houses for Singles in India

1. we have 22 houses, 58 rooms, 80 beds

2. we have 76 tenants and 14 owners

3. Owners don't like revenue sharing. They prefer fixed rent; they don't mind lower rent if we can give them a hassle-free experience and promise long-term rental income.

4. Team is just me, and my co-founder. I am a software eng (past apigee, pramati). I take care of tech, sales/marketing, cust dev. My co-founder is a civil contractor and takes care of operations. We have one part-time person helping us with digital marketing.

5. Operations in general is a challenge. Every house has 10s of keys, sometimes much more; managing them is a problem. There are 20 other such smaller issues.

We only provide for mid to long-term stays. We ask for a minimum stay of 6 months and bill them monthly. Airbnb becomes too expensive for anything longer than a few days. We have learned short-term stays need a different setup and doesn't suit the way we are currently setup. People who stay for longer periods care for the house and it aligns well with the owner's interests.

I haven't seen too many people using Airbnb; OYO Rooms seems to be the dominant player in this segment.