RentMyStay is an online platform that makes renting as simple as check-in to a hotel. It provides a variety of options ranging from fully furnished apartments, villas, rooms to independent homes for both short term and long term rentals. Bangalore-based company was started in 2015 by Kiran Nagarajappa and Rakesh Kamble.
In an interaction with Sujata Sangwan of BWDisrupt, Rakesh Kamble, Founder, RentMyStay, shares details about his venture.
Brief about Rent My Stay’s business model? How the startup helps people in renting an accommodation?RentMyStay is an online platform that makes renting as simple as checking into a hotel. RentMyStay provides a wide range of options from fully furnished apartments, villas, rooms to independent homes, for both short term and long term rentals. RentMyStay’s Flexi renting model allows one to rent a fully furnished house on short term and long term basis. Our clients can rent a flat for a period as short as a single day to a months and longer. They can also move across any of the flats within the network without lease breakage.
RentMyStay’s Android application and web portal allow users to book and move-in to a rental home for short term or regular term. Tenants can also co-ordinate the range of repairs and maintenance services from electrical to painting, plumbing to carpentry etc using our platform. RentMyStay is the only platform which allows one to book a temporary home while, traveling, work deputation, family visit, Medical tourism, sales visit, ITeS etc. Same homes can also be booked for the long term on a regular rental basis.
On RentMyStay you find properties that are pre-screened and are met with certain standards so you are not out for surprises. You will find all the required information to book your property online without the need to physically inspect the place. All of this, without any brokerage or hassle of negotiating with the owners. Owners get free property management as part of signup with RentMyStay so they no longer have the hassle of maintaining the property or worry about tenant changes.
RentMyStay presently manages over 300 properties in Bangalore and has served over 1500 customers so far! The company is Cash positive and with a team of 26 members, is growing rapidly.
How your business model works or how do you decide on your transaction fee?RentMyStay is the property management company, which caters hassle free tenant management along with maintaining the property of the house owners. In this fast paced world, one gets little time to take care of their properties, and attend to tenants requests, all these along with tenant movements are taken care when the owner signs up with RentMyStay. RentMyStay is the single window for its tenants and addresses all the maintenance and move-in, move-out issues. RentMyStay charges owner a small fee of 10% for the maintenance of the property.
Are there any other competitors for you in the market, If yes, how you are different and how do you plan to take up the challenges?This domain is service intensive and it’s a game of execution, whoever does it right, rides ahead in the competition. However, there is enough opportunity for multiple players to be in this domain. We have a strong technology backend and a team with never say die attitude, which keeps the spirit alive. Demand is huge in this space and we make no compromises with our quality to meet the huge demand. We have come up with Flexi renting ideas which are new in this domain and we have whole heartedly accepted this system which puts us in a more advantageous position as compared to our competitors.
How long the process takes to get someone a rental accommodation and for how long do you rent?We are makes renting as simple as checking into a hotel. This means, one can instantly book and move into the place, one could directly book the place online, with all the details provided to make the decision. RentMyStay’s flexi renting model, enables one to rent a house from as low as a month to 11 months online via its website and android app.
How did you came up with this idea of starting something like Rent My Stay?Kiran N and Rakesh Kamble came up with the idea of RentMyStay during a casual stroll. Rakesh wanted to rent a place for 2-3 months to stay close to his under-construction house to oversee the final finishes. But none of the owners agreed to rent for a short duration. Series of such instances led to the idea of RentMyStay, soon Nanjunda joined the team.
We initially started aggregating service apartments and started the business. While doing so, we saw a huge gap between rental space and service apartments. We realized that the clients were vary of paying a huge premium for service apartments. This ignited the idea of pioneering fully furnished, a do-it-yourself model of renting.
In Jan 2016, we entered Long term stays and today we manage a strong number of over 300 properties in 8 different locations across Bangalore. In next 3 months, we would be entering Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, Gurgaon regions as well.
Why did you choose to penetrate into the competition intensive real estate rental domain? How do you manage to survive in this space?When we entered the space there were very handful of people in the rental domain and this domain is still fragmented. There is a need of a flagship company to bring in trust, regulations and ease the process of renting. This domain is service intensive and it’s a game of execution, whoever does it right, rides ahead in the competition. However, there is enough opportunity for multiple players to be in this domain. We have a strong backend team with never say die attitude, which keeps the spirit alive.
Demand is huge in this space and we make no compromises with our quality to meet the huge demand.
Where do you see Rent My Stay today since its inception?RentMyStay has gone through a paradigm shift from aggregating service apartments to fully furnished short-term stays to entering into the long-term rental market. We are today a strong 26 member team with over 300 properties in 8 different areas across Bangalore.
We have come a long way in making RentMyStay a self-sufficient entity. We have come up with Flexi renting ideas which are new in this domain and we have wholeheartedly accepted this system which puts us in a more advantageous position as compared to our competitors.
How is your presence in India? Plans to expand? Where?We are primarily operational in Bangalore, whereas we would by be starting our operations in Delhi/NCR, Pune, Hyderabad and Chennai. RentMyStay presently manages over 300 properties across Bangalore and has served over 1500 customers so far!
