Meet Wudstay, a profitable startup offering budget hotel bookings, retirement and PG homes

In the relatively crowded and ‘discounted’ space of what is called budget hotel booking services, the startup Wudstay works with accommodation owners to ensure an end-to-end solution for its customers. Founded in April 2015, Wudstay was born with the sole objective of establishing uncompromised and quality accommodation across the country, says founder and avid traveler Prafulla Mathur. It isn’t just limited to the hotel bookings, as Wudstay also caters to students and working professionals looking for PG accommodations, and also for senior citizens looking for retirement homes. “We also recently launched Wudstay Pride, in which we partnered 25 Grade A Retirement Homes across Delhi NCR and Mumbai,” points out Mathur. Overall, it has a network of over 200 PGs and more than 500 hotels across the country. It is accessible as of now on the  web, and as apps for Android and iOS. It was his frequent travels when working for the previous venture Queppelin that led to the idea of building Wudstay. “More often than not, I would end up paying high room tariffs in return for absolutely poor services and extremely shabby hotel rooms. During one of my visits to Mumbai, a city where hotels are largely expensive, I booked a hotel room via a major travel website. The room was stuffy and the linen was stained. I was forced to leave that hotel owing to the unlivable nature of the property. This experience got me thinking and I was then keen on building a platform where users could book hotels with confidence irrespective of their budget.” Mathur explains. With a team of 50, Wudstay takes full guarantee of customer’s experience and has 24 x 7 customer support service. “Our team is majorly split up into compliance professionals who survey our properties to ensure that our guidelines are being met and Partner Associates who scout for newer accommodations that Wudstay could take under its wing, Mathur said. Wudstay raised USD 3 million from Mangrove Capital Partners and Nimbuzz’s Vikas Saxena during its first round of funding and also a seed round from Similie Ventures. However, Mathur talks about using the funding wisely, which has led to a profitable company. It makes money through commissions. “Wudstay works on a commission basis with a range anywhere between 20%-40% depending on the quality, cost and nature of the accommodation. We are already an operationally profitable company and don’t indulge in heavy discounting. Our focus remains on quality rather than offering ‘cheap stays’ to our customers,” Mathur said. So, unlike others Wudstay doesn’t offer rooms at discounted prices and the average price is between Rs 1300-1400. Mathur points out there are some exclusive stays like Havelis in Rajasthan, Shikaras in Kashmir and Houseboats in Kerala as well. “We strongly believe that luring customers through heavy discounts is a race to the bottom. Eventually, when funds dry up, companies that have create no real value but offered high discounts lose out on the customer base,” Mathur further explains. Wudstay has a twofold consumer outreach strategy, one through Online Marketing Mediums for awareness and other through partnering with brands. As a roadmap for 2016, the startup wants to continue focus on quality and comfort, and take the hotel network to 100 cities.