Home-away-from-home model offers hotels a sliver of hope amid Covid crisis

IHCL plans three-fold increase for its homestay properties

A compulsive traveller, Gaurav Saraf, managing director of Square Foot, a Bengaluru-based flooring company, had tired of being cooped up at home for five months. But he didn’t want to risk a holiday where he and his family would have to stay in a hotel. “Hotels have too many touchpoints,” he says. But he also needed to get out of home.

So he booked a trip to the Cottabetta Bungalow in Coorg, which was once owned and run by Tata Coffee and is now part of amã Stays & Trails, the brand under which IHCL runs its homestays. 

A picture-perfect