with many travelers now looking for homely comfort during holidays, there is a snowballing demand for homestays. India numbers among the most promising countries for the homestay segment. To keep up with this exponential growth and tap into its extraordinary potential, the Indian hospitality industry leaders are diversifying their offerings. Aditi Chordia, Co-founder, Alt Homes is  one of them. With a keen eye for aesthetics, a passion for warm and cozy interiors, and the value of hosting guests imbued in her since childhood, Aditi leaves no stone unturned to make her guests feel at home. She co-founded Alt Homes with the idea of providing guests the experience of a home away from home, and the property owners, a lucrative income source. Aditi is leveraging her expertise in social work, research & analysis to understand the changing customer preferences in the hospitality industry and designing guest-centric approaches to curate memorable stays and vacations through the warmth of good hospitality. Let’s hear it from her.

How and when did you develop an interest in the field of hospitality? How does your expertise as a social worker help you in your current role in the hospitality industry?

I believe a person grows up to become the manifestation of his/her childhood upbringing. And for me, as I grew up in a family where relatives kept visiting our house on every other occasion, I witnessed a culture of hospitality that my parents never failed to showcase. It is from them that I learned that hospitality is not just about serving good food and providing comfort, it's more about warmth and attention to detail, about being able to instantly make everybody feel at home, welcomed, and wanted. So, my interest in hospitality came very naturally to me, as I grew up watching my parents being commendable hosts to their guests. Having found the same in my husband, we decided to channel our common penchant for hosting into something bigger and better. As social workers, we learned to be empathetic and were trained to understand that it's never a good idea to assume what your target group wants. Taking that forward, we aim to bring a fresh perspective by not assuming what our guests want and looking at their needs from an empathetic lens. As a result, we are able to tailor our efforts to individual needs and cater towards luxurious hospitality and immersive travel.

What led to the idea of establishing Alt Homes?

We started with managing a relative’s property in Uttarakhand which was built as a holiday home for his family. Since they didn’t use it so frequently, they began to experience a recurring cost to maintain the property. We helped him convert it into a homestay for tourists. This idea changed the status quo. With guests coming in regularly, the maintenance became streamlined. Three years forward, today we have managed to multiply the tariff of the same place by four times. When we came across more such second homeowners, we realized that all of them were facing issues such as pocket-pinching maintenance costs, lack of reliable vendors and retention of caretakers and other staff. This problem led us to establish Alt Homes and take the burden away of second-home owners, turning their houses into luxurious homestays, to maintain the property and also make additional revenue for them.

Tell us about the various responsibilities you shoulder as the co-founder of Alt Homes.

Our firm is like a ship that is sailing through an ocean with lots of opportunities and challenges. And we founders are like two sailors of the ship who leverage their skills, not just to ensure that the ship stays afloat, but also moves ahead in the right speed and direction. As the Co-founder, I constantly review what we are doing, where we are headed and at what pace to be able to steer all our strategic growth toward our vision. I also specialize in curating guest experiences, creating comfortable ambiences in our homes through interior design efforts and onboarding more homes and homeowner partners with us through active networking. Apart from that, I pay a lot of attention to creating impactful marketing strategies to have a prominent brand image in the market, whether it's through social media or building collaborations with influencers or brands; I always keep myself aware of what is happening and accordingly keep reviewing our decisions.

"Hospitality is not just about serving good food & providing comfort; it's more about warmth and attention to detail, about being able to instantly make everybody feel at home, welcomed, & wanted"

What are some of the most critical challenges you encounter as an entrepreneur in the Indian hospitality sector? How do you overcome them?

Since hospitality is a service-oriented sector, one of the most important challenges is the ever-dynamic nature of customers. One has to remain relevant. To go beyond customers’ expectations, we continuously invest in research and analysis. Given my expertise in research and analysis, I am able to help my team in understanding the shifting market trends and adapting our offerings accordingly. This effort involves embracing technology, being constantly in the know-how of novel decor trends and so on. Regular guest feedback and market research helps us to anticipate the changes and enables us to stay ahead of the curve.

"Entrepreneurship is nothing but a journey of innovatively overcoming obstacles & no obstacle can be overcome without open & effective communication"

Another major challenge, since in this sector the on-ground team forms the backbone of our operations, is to find and retain skilled, adaptable, and self-driven employees. To address this challenge, we focus on developing a culture of compassion that fosters mutual respect between employees. This creates an environment for employees to feel that the job they are in is conducive to their growth and learning. We also conduct comprehensive trainings and offer competitive packages and incentives for them. The experiences that we curate at Alt Homes are immersed in the local culture of our location and our target audience includes conscious travellers who value authentic experiences. So our employees often go an extra mile owing to the respect they receive towards their culture.

Throw some light on the top milestones Alt Homes has achieved since its inception. Alt Homes for us is like a permaculture farm as it is spread across a diverse location where each home works like an independent ecosystem of its own. Over the years, we have been able to create a sustainable presence in Uttarakhand, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka. And we have a home on the verge of completion in Delhi. We started with a team of two, my partner and I, and now we are a family of 20+ members. And together we work towards maintaining a super host status and have been delivering unique experiences to our guests. This in itself is an achievement but for me, my dream milestone would be when each of these homes or ecosystems would start syncing with one another through either creating crosslinked value chains or exchanging traditional knowledge and culture. When someone visiting one of our homes in Uttarakhand appreciates a welcome basket goodie that is hand-crafted by a local in Ooty or vice versa, that's when I feel we will be inching towards our ultimate goal or ideal milestone.

Tell us about the leadership philosophy you follow as a business leader.

Honestly, a good leader is always a mix of all leadership styles and approaches suited to the situation. However, I do staunchly believe in being an authentic, real and honest human figure in the organization. Being relatable as a leader is key. When I am being honest and real about a mistake I may have made, my team also tends to feel motivated and encouraged to innovate, contribute, and take ownership of Alt Homes as much as I do, despite the fear of failure. Once you appear as a human first and a boss later is when you are able to get the best out of your team. Having said that, I am also a strong believer in effective delegation; if YOU handle all aspects of your business, you won’t sustain. My idea of running a business is to hire the right people and let the experts do their job without micromanaging them at every step! Moreover, the most important thing for me is effective communication, which lies at the core of my leadership approach. I believe entrepreneurship is nothing but a journey of innovatively overcoming obstacles and no obstacle can be overcome without open and effective communication.

Aditi Chordia, Co-Founder, ALT Homes

Having done a BA in Psychology Hons from Lady Shri Ram College and an MA from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Aditi is currently leading a team of 20+ members across the field of marketing, travel, hospitality, sustainability and social work. With their support, she has set out on a mission to make vacations for travelers luxurious and comfortable as well as more conscious, sustainable and experiential.