From ages we have heard that women make great home-makers. But what if women step out of their homes and start making homes for others. This is the story of one such woman who is transforming the idea of hospitality by making the hosts’ home guest ready. In conversation with Deepti Patankar, co-founder of Hostmaker, a startup that provides various services to Airbnb hosts, ranging from housekeeping to providing concierge and thus enriches the travellers’ experience.
From Guests to Hosts
Hostmaker provides quality hospitality services for Airbnb hosts to enhance the experience of their guests. But what makes Hostmaker best at what they do? Deepti talks about her journey from once a guest of Airbnb to founding Hostmaker for the hosts.
“My husband Nakul and I consider ourselves to be early Airbnb adopters. We started travelling on Airbnb in 2011 and had some amazing local experiences. We stayed in some unique homes, met interesting people and got to sample some authentic and local bars and restaurants. However we did have some awful experiences and most of them centred around cleanliness of the homes and communication with our hosts.
Then in 2013 we put up our home on Airbnb and quickly realised that it was extremely hard to provide a great service to your guests while having a full time job. Any normal hotel has an army of help in the form of cleaner, laundry, concierge, front office etc. but here it was just us. So we decided to do something about it and created Hostmaker a London, Airbnb property Management Company that helps Airbnb hosts manage their listing and deal with all the logistics without any hassle. We provide hospitality management services including cleaning, linen, check in services to Airbnb hosts. We do all the work and they get all the credit!”
Their experience as guests provided them an insight into the tastes of the guests. They realized what the guests need and found a way to provide it to them. Deepti describes Hostmaker’s USP as,
“We have a team that understands hospitality so we know what Airbnb hosts and guests expect and how to deliver on those expectations. Key members of our team have hotel background. We also employ and train our front line staff which is made up of our housekeepers and drivers. This shows in the high quality of service we provide and gets us more and more customers everyday. In a way they are our most effective marketing channel!”
From a Small Town Girl to an Entrepreneur
An avid quizzer with a passion for reading, Deepti hails from a middle class family from the small town of Thane. A merit student with 27th rank in the entrance exam, Deepti joined the National Law School, Bangalore.
“At NLS I really learnt the value of discipline, hard work and rigour. Competition was fierce and many were cracking under the pressure. I focused on corporate and banking subjects and was rewarded with a training contract at Linklaters in London.
After spending 7 years doing banking at Linklaters I just felt that I had spent enough time and energy working for other people. Don’t get me wrong – Linklaters was a fantastic place to learn skills at the highest level and my colleagues were an inspiring lot. But it really made me think whether this is it or is there something more creative and new I can do.”
Deepti took hospitality up a notch by using her experience as a guest to help hosts make their home a more welcoming and warm place to stay.
“It is about connecting with real people and I wanted to do something in a field where you can make an impact on people’s lives and hopefully a positive and happy impact at that!”
Transforming Difficulties into Opportunities
Just like any other startup, Deepti had to face a certain number of challenges. But her determination cleared away the road blocks, and her success story stands right before us as Hostmaker today. Deepti and Nakul quit their steady jobs to create Hostmaker. They kept this from the parents in order to not cause worry, but eventually when they shared the concept, their parents were supportive of their venture. Deepti talks about the various obstacles she faced while founding Hostmaker, and how she overcame them.
“Going from a risk averse banking lawyer to a start up in an emerging field was very challenging. I had to un-learn some old habits and learn new skills. A start up is all about calculating risk and executing fast with limited data. It has taken me a year to get comfortable with the risk taking and the continuous iteration of the service offer.
The legal training made me expect “final form” perfection from my work. It was quite painful to realise that that doesn’t work in start up life and I had to settle for good enough. It took a lot of emotional strength to recognise that and let go.
Also Hostmaker is an ops business so it has been physically draining. No one tells you this but a start up like Hostmaker which is growing at 40% month on month can leave you pretty exhausted!”
How a vacation shaped the guidebook for Hostmaker
Started with their savings as an investment, Hostmaker raised £250,000 in the fifth month from Angels. Her idea became her driving force.
Deepti shares with Hersaga a memorable incident from her journey as an entrepreneur.
“This is a funny one. Nakul and I bummed off to Brazil for the football world cup in 2014 after launching the Hostmaker website. We had 1 customer at that time and nothing in the pipeline. We had allocated beach time at the end of the trip in this village called Trancoso. It had taken a flight, a ferry, a bus and a walk to get to the hotel. As soon as checked in we got a message from our customer no.2. This person was not a friend so we had to treat this seriously. She asked us so many questions and we had to draft the terms of our service and model our pricing etc. We spent 2 days doing that and got everything out and the customer was happy! On day 3 when we decided to hit the beach it started raining and didn’t stop at all! Whilst I missed that beach time, the model and the terms and conditions have remained unchanged since then.”
It’s an uphill climb from here on
Hostmaker provides hotel style hospitality services to hosts to make their homes guest ready. Deepti envisions Hostmaker as the leading homestay hospitality management brand across Europe and hopefully in other continents as well, covering atleast 15 cities in coming 3 years. As a female entrepreneur, Deepti sends out the following message about what she has learnt and would like to advise to some just starting out.
“The best piece of advice someone gave me was when Hostmaker was about 4 months old. One of our earliest customers who is a very successful serial entrepreneur told me that integrity and the ability to own up to your mistakes is the key to gain trust of your customers. Don’t do anything underhanded however appealing it might and if you ever make a mistake own up, say sorry and fix it fast!
I think women are extremely self critical (I know I am). In a start up, you just have to get the job done sometimes. It might not be the best you have produced but you have to get it across the line and if you hang around trying to perfect it then you will lose the race. So don’t criticise yourself too much and don’t question your ability to lead!”
Deepti looks up to her former boss from Linklaters, Mirthe van Kesteren, head of trade finance and emerging market finance at Linklaters banking department as a role model.
“She ran art galleries till she was in her late 30s. Then she decided to become a lawyer and went on to become a partner and head of department. Always impeccably dressed. Almost always the only woman in a room full of men (usually from the BRIC countries). She worked like an ox and would be up and about till 3 am when we junior lawyers were flagging. An amazing combination of grace and grit.”