24 February 2017, India:
One of India’s biggest homestay and alternate stay aggregators, Stayzilla, has suspended operations as per the blog post by Yogendra Vasupal.
Founded in 2005 by Yogendra Vasupal, Rupal Yogendra and Sachit Singhi, Stayzilla was one of the largest platforms for verified homestays and alternate stays. It had more than 55,000 stay options across 4000 towns in India. The platform catered to both homeowners and travelers looking for differentiated, unique stay experiences.
Yogendra Vasupal said in a blog post, “I would like to announce today that we would be bringing to a halt the operations of Stayzilla in its current form, and looking to reboot it with a different business model.”
He further added, “This has been one of the toughest decisions that I have taken so far but it is the right thing to do. The hardest part is saying goodbye to a perfect team that has accomplished a lot by putting Homestays on the map of India. I am the most fortunate to have had such a team on my side at this juncture. Whatever and how much ever I write about them is not going to do justice to their commitment. But try, I must!”
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Vasupal believes specialization could be the future mantra for Stayzilla. “Focusing all our energies on the supply side will allow us to build on our core strength that we have developed over the last 18 months. Specialized solutions such as the concept of ‘Stayzilla Verified Homestays’ excite me in particular. Originally conceived to increase trust, this could serve as the benchmark for the entire nascent and unstructured industry,” he said.
