V Resorts is a Destination for Evolved Travelers - Aditi Balbir, Founder& CEO V Resorts
A travel junkie at heart, who got the hacks of travelling right in her twenties and bag packed around the world. She always had the idea of offbeat travelling time, or location. Aditi had her bags packed. Little did she know, this leisure activity of hers can help thousands of Indian materialize their idea of offbeat travelling.
Meet Aditi Balbir, Founder and CEO of V Resorts. A travel destination where you arrive as a tourist and leave as a local. Going by the philosophy Aditi has now raised 4 million dollar in its third round of funding led by Seedfund and RB International for V Resorts (V= View).As all the acquired properties need to be view centric to be part of the group. With their flagship properties at Delhi, Jodhpur, Udaipur, Nashik, Jaipur, Sariska. Their recent acquisition is Dapoli, Maharashtra (Between the river and sea).
“Most of our new funding will be deployed towards growth, it is basically growth capital for us. We plan to reach 150 destinations in India and also expand V resorts internationally”, says Balbir.
GST Rollout
Commenting on the GST rollout and how it would impact V Resorts Balbir feels GST was definitely not a good move for business owners in her space.
Balbir says “The idea was always that there will be an input credit and that we will be able to set it off, because we will be able to move towards a service tax. We are a service tax positive company. The service tax that we pay is much higher than the service tax that we earn. So I thought that with the GST rollout , we will be able to get that input. But the catch is that it can be only state wise. So this set of rule is not working for me. Also now the tax rates have become really high and is not helping me. In fact the cash required in the system goes up.”
She feels the only way GST is beneficial for her is that she can acquire small business owners who want to stay away from GST mess and she could use that as a peg for her business growth.
V Resorts Business Model
Aditi says V Resorts as a getaway destination is an offering is for the evolved traveler. Basically for people who have traveled abroad and have an experience of evolved travelling. Target audience is mainly people from tier one cities 30 plus. As an average vacation at V resorts will cost you about 20-25 thousand.
“Our model is structured to be perfect for the space we are in”, she adds.
Although V resorts still gets a wide variety of audience like a lot of solo women travelers, they get bag packers, journalists and young people ,claims Balbir
“Our business model is simple- we are company which knows how to draw profitability from small boutique resorts. If you talk to any big player in the hospitality industry, they believe that any property under 75v rooms is unviable. And V resorts has busted the myth. We are able to show profitability. We are able to structure costs in a way that we are able to break even at 20 per cent occupancy.”
Dissection Of Collaboration with V Resorts for property owners
When V Resorts takes over a property it indulges the new member in its fine line of pure white linin sheets a customized menu, destination specific wall hangings and a V store, where they have special offerings for the traveler. Locally made chutneys, to jams, to extracted essential oils everything on the local production is available at affordable prices giving rise employment locally. However the company does not make any investment in infrastructure and assets.
“We include all the existing employees in our team, get them trained In your training school in Delhi. The property manager will not incur any more operating cost. I take over the entire risk of business on my books. The owner is earning a revenue share. And the risk is all mine to generate a gross profit.”
Aditi Balbir’s Top three reasons to stay at V Resorts
