Homestays with a difference

Sanjay Wadhawan, Co-founder, The Earthaa Escapes, and Sehar Shamim, Director, Sales & Marketing, The Earthaa Escapes, share what makes their fully-serviced homestay facilities unique and provide an experience that is ‘a must for travellers looking for privacy and comfort’.

Nisha Verma

After running hotels and luxury trains for years, Sanjay Wadhawan, Co-founder, The Earthaa Escapes, got into running homestays recently. “We had our own five-bedroom home in Mashobra and we started with it as an experiment and launched the brand Earthaa,” he shares.

In the homestays, Earthaa offers curated service. “Instead of guests being worried about cooking and grocery shopping, our properties are fully-serviced homestays as many people in our team come from a hotel background. Right from housekeeping to F&B, we take care of everything. Before the guests check-in, their menus are sent to them, and they can choose what they want and when. Everything is curated and personalised,” he adds.

After a successful beginning, Wadhawan kept on adding more properties. “From trails and picnics, to treks and food walks in Shimla…we ventured into it fully and took another place in Kanatal, which is near Mussoorie—a three-bedroom place, and also a place on the lake at Naukuchiatal, which is an old five-bedroom hunting lodge. There is also a property in Delhi at Geetanjali. Now, we are moving to Goa and some more places in Uttarakhand,” he further adds.

Sehar Shamim, Director, Sales & Marketing, The Earthaa Escapes, asserts that they call themselves “fully-serviced homestays”. “By the end of the year, we want to have about 30 to 40 homestays. Apart from Goa, we are also coming up with an offbeat property at Shillaru, which is an apple orchard and almost 10 acres of land,” she adds.

Activities galore

Wadhawan claims that they offer different activities at different destinations. “We are promoting golf in Naldhera and river rafting in Kanatal. In Naukuchiatal, there is fishing and trekking. In Goa, we have concierge service before the check-in, suggesting activities and places beyond nightclubs and parties like restaurants for breakfast and lunch, boat cruise on yacht, or a safari,” he adds.

Targeted promotions

For promotions, they go for the usual social media vertical. However, Wadhawan adds, “We’ve got a lot of referral business, and apart from social media, we are very strong in travel trade. We have long associations with them, including domestic and inbound operators. They trust us for good service and delivering what we claim. We are even reaching out to clubs in Delhi-NCR and Punjab.”

Privacy is a priority

Most of their properties can accommodate three families with kids or five families. Some people book the entire property. “Also, during the last six months, safety has been a priority, and people have been avoiding hotels. Hence, they prefer homestays. Our USP is that we are fully serviced and the staff is fully vaccinated. Guests can sit together in the dining area, common drawing area, or lawn instead of being restricted to a single room,” Wadhawan claims.

Agents first

Shamim says that their association with agents has been longstanding, including inbound, domestic, conference and MICE agents. “We reached out to agents in Delhi, Punjab—Jalandhar, Amritsar, Chandigarh, and Ludhiana.”

Homestays for all

Wadhawan says the homestays are available for every price range. “Not all of our homestays are ultra-luxury, but we have different categories,” he says.