StayVista’s Journey: From Startup to Market Leader—Inside the Vision and Strategies Driving Success

Authored by - Amit Damani, Co-founder, StayVista

Amit is no newcomer to the field of strategy and innovation. At StayVista (earlier Vista Rooms), he has been responsible for creating and accelerating the company’s marketing strategy and brand recognition

globally, which ties in seamlessly with his years of experience in studying market entry and strategy building.

After graduating in Economics & International Studies from Northwestern University, USA, Amit was associated with Teach for India as a Fellow; followed by consulting at Dalberg Global Development Advisors where he worked with the Chinese and German government ministries, and the World Bank on socio-economic development projects.

Amit together with co-founders Ankita Sheth and Pranav Maheshwari laid the foundation of StayVista in 2015 – the trio is focused on driving the company vision of building a robust network of curated stays in India for large and small groups alike, identifying a looming gap in the travel industry that caters to offering fully-serviced, luxury villa rentals for all purposes of stays.

1. What inspired you to start StayVista, and what were the initial challenges you faced in launching the company?

It all started with 3 cups of green tea and an ambitious conversation between our co- founders - Amit, Ankita and Pranav who took an idea and snowballed it to what StayVista is today.

Vista Rooms, as it was initially named, began by partnering with smaller hotels and homes for rentals. However, in 2017, started shifting focus towards luxury villas.

The spark for this concept came from a family villa owned by one of the co-founders in Lonavala, a short drive of 83 km from Mumbai. The villa was built by his grandparents but over the years, was hardly being used. He promised his grandmother that the villa would still be theirs, it would be maintained well and she would earn a nice income from it.

As the idea flourished, his relatives, friends, and acquaintances registered their properties with Stay Vista under a management contract, creating a successful network of villas.

Perhaps, the biggest challenge initially was to convince villa owners to let StayVista maintain their property and manage bookings. After all, these homes were very close to their hearts. But as StayVista demonstrated its expertise in bringing and hosting guests, more owners started to sign up.

Also, group staycations weren’t the preferred option for holiday goers like it is today. The market hadn’t matured enough and awareness of the existence of such villas was limited among travellers.

2. How did you validate StayVista’s business model and decide on your target market? What strategies have you used to differentiate yourself from competitors?

StayVista saw a clear gap in the market between the Airbnbs (private spaces, but not service or standardisation) and 5 star hotels (luxury amenities & services but no privacy and exclusivity. There was a clear need for a brand that offered private spaces along with staff to cater to the stay.

Indians are used to service and personalised hospitality, and this is the gap that was bridged by StayVista. We introduced large private spaces in exotic locations, with managed services like F&B and other experiences.

In order to differentiate ourselves, we have made a conscious effort to transition from a villa-first brand to an experience-first brand.

This is in line with global travel trends and the evolution of the discerning Indian traveller in seeking new and fulfilling experiences. So, in addition to fulfilling the travellers’ need for a private, luxury villa, we also provide experiences such as local food tasting, spa, speed boat, bonfire & BBQ, live music, games, movie screenings and more. A large portion of our guests gather to celebrate important days like birthdays, anniversaries and reunions. We enable these celebrations, sometimes organising them entirely and other times pitching in with something they might need.

When it comes to performance, profitability, presence or customers, we are head and shoulders above the competition as the largest brand in the category.

3. Can you describe a pivotal moment or turning point in StayVista’s growth? How did it impact the company’s trajectory?

The global COVID-19 pandemic was a pivotal moment in StayVista’s growth. In 2020, villa stays were still a new concept in India, with travellers still sticking to booking luxury hotels for travel.

As you would expect, hospitality was among the hardest-hit companies during the pandemic but travellers started to come as soon as lockdown restrictions were lifted. Everyone realised they are getting all the comforts and luxuries of a hotel but in their own private space, close to nature and away from health risks. Friends and families who had not met for months due to lockdown saw an opportunity to spend quality time together in such spaces and StayVista’s popularity began to soar.

In less than a year, we were back to our pre-covid levels of revenue.

Today, our revenue figures are at 200 crores, with promising projections this year to become EBITDA positive.

4. What are your short-term and long-term goals for StayVista, and how do you plan to achieve them? What role does innovation play in your vision for the future?

Our goal is to become the second largest leisure hospitality brand in India in the next five years.

As a brand, we want to be at the forefront of offering unique and immersive stay experiences for our guests and become their go-to travel brand.

We plan to hit the 1000 properties mark within the next 4 months and in a year, our expansion plans include adding over 600+ properties, penetrating deeper into existing markets, and venturing into new territories. We also plan to add a wider array of accommodations like sustainable container homes, A-framed cottages, heritage havelis, glamping sites and hobbit homes.

We recently launched ‘Vieda’, a new brand with a collection of uber-luxe villas with presidential suite level service. Also, we’re now venturing into other categories such as boutique cabin stays for couples, economy serviced villa stays and unique concept homes.

Alongside guest facing brands we’re also venturing into B2B verticals like starting a buy & sell advisory arm to connect villa estate developers to the right buyers who are interested to own a holiday home and offer facility management.

We are aiming to be profitable this year and plan for an IPO in 3 years.