Started an accommodation search site www.zoronto.com roughly a year ago straight out of college all alone without any money and prior business experience.
I stayed for 6 years in Kolkata in Paying Guest and rented apartments.
The painful and horrible experience of me and my friends lead me to think about such a solution. I was excited and realized that there was a huge need for this kind of service and I could earn revenue also as the host was already paying the brokers / agents and also spending on advertisements.
I want to provide frequently updated, relevant and trustworthy information along with all the details and ratings, comments and recommendations of the available accommodations to the guest and charge nothing at all to the guest and make it dead simple to access the information by integrating multiple access points.
It would be listing Paying Guest, Guest Houses and Agents / Brokers for rented residential properties. Also would provide roommate finder service. Have a detailed plan of action for it.
Revenue will stream from the host on a monthly basis as a subscription fee for the time being and I have other revenue streams that will be implemented in future as we scale.
The present site is simple and needs a lot of modifications.
I started the site with no money at all and after 4 – 5 months I earned enough to sustain myself on the revenue generated from the business.
I have a very small team and the work pressure is increasing tremendously with very little increase in revenue.
We two guys have to handle sales, meeting with the host guys for background checking and cash collection, advertising, customer support and IT too.
The fact that we are dependent on the revenue for our sustenance makes it very difficult to grow and manage business process in a consistence manner. If we get less revenue in a month then we face problems advertising and thus bear loss in the next month.
I do believe that given the right time and investment this project can be scaled and implemented in a better way. I do have plans for it that are based on my experience, findings and interactions with the host and guest for the last one year.
I have taken a risk and moved to Bangalore hoping to take it further.
Would like to know from you guys:
1. Your views on the idea and will it really work.
2. Any idea of the market size.
3. If a PG is not registered with the municipality/ corporation and they list on our site then will any legal issues be taken on us i.e. do we need to ensure that all PG’s are registered with the government.
4. Is there any hope of seed investing from angels / VC’s. This project requires good amount of money.
For any query / help / advice feel free to mail me at abhisheek@zoronto.com
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