Unorganized sectors hold great opportunities for digital or online businesses. But every such online business have to have a innovative vision, such is RentMyStay. Formed by Kiran Nagarajappa and Rakesh Kamble, who have been techies with each carrying 10+ years of experience and a common motto for life which says, “We can’t have everything which matters, but we can work harder to achieve it.” In an exclusive discussion with SMEStreet, they shared their success story and also emphasized key industry trends.
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Please share some details about RentMyStay?
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 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 200 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 did you came up with this idea of starting something like RentMyStay?
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 200 properties in 8 different locations across Bangalore. In next 3 months, we would be entering Hyderabad, Chennai, 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 RMS 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 200 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.