Vedanta Wake Up plans 100 hotels, eyes Rs 50 cr VC funding

The firm offers affordable accommodation to young backpacking visitors mainly travelling below a budget of $50

Blanket Hospitality Ventures is planning to have 100 properties under its backpacking hostels brand, Vedanta Wake Up, in the next three years across India.

"Today, we have six properties in Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. We are aiming to expand to 100 properties across the country in three years," company's founder Aadil Muscatwala told PTI here.

With a seed capital of Rs 50 lakh, Muscatwala and his friend Rishabh Gupta, had set up Vedanta Wake Up in Kerala in 2011.

"We thought of starting from Kerala due to the 365 days assurance of tourist inflow," he added.

To become a pan-India player, the duo are scouting for Venture Capitalist (VC) funds to the tune of Rs 30 to 50 crore.

"We take unbranded properties, with 20-30 rooms, on long-term lease and standardise them according to our company specifications. We take around two months to make a property operational," Muscatwala said adding that big brands usually take two-three years.

Vedanta Wake Up provides affordable accommodation to young backpacking visitors mainly travelling below a budget of $50 (around Rs 3,000).

The hospitality chain provides both dormitory and single room options.

In the dormitory format each bed ranges between Rs 400-600 per night, while the single room costs Rs 1,200-2,000.

All the Vedanta Wake Up hostels enjoys about 50-60 per cent occupancy, Muscatwala said.

"It takes each of our property 20 per cent occupancy to break-even. So all our properties are profitable," he added.