Simplified Management makes property management software for rentals and hotels in India. Its Managing Director, Sanket Modi, writes a weekly column for HospitalityTech Edition, starting with Airbnb’s India Growth Makes the Case for Selling on More Sites. We sent him seven questions on the Indian market behind those numbers, using Airbnb’s and MakeMyTrip’s latest quarterly results and the GST change on room tariffs. He answered in writing.
1. Airbnb says nights booked by guests from India grew more than 60% in the third quarter, the second quarter in a row that growth sped up, and first-time bookers from India rose more than 80%. What is behind that?
Indian families often travel in groups. A family of six, three couples who went to college together, a wedding party that needs somewhere to stay for two nights. A hotel sells that group three rooms on three different floors. A villa or a homestay sells them one house with a kitchen and a living room.
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What has changed is where the booking happens. A few years ago that group found the villa through a cousin and paid the owner by bank transfer. Now they open an app, compare ten houses and pay by card or UPI. The 80% rise in first-time bookers tells me a lot of these families are trying an app for a home stay for the first time. Once they have done it once, they do it again.
2. MakeMyTrip’s adjusted margin from hotels and packages grew 20.2% in constant currency in its September quarter, and the company said more than 55% of the conversations with its trip assistant came from Tier II and Tier III cities. Where is the new demand coming from?
From outside the big metros. The traveller from Nagpur, Indore, Nashik or Coimbatore has money for two or three short trips a year and books them on a phone. That guest drives to the hills or the coast for a long weekend and wants a clean, safe place for the whole family. The destinations that gain are the ones within four or five hours of those cities, and many of them have more homestays than hotels.
For an owner that matters, because this guest decides on photos, reviews and a clear price, and asks questions in Hindi, Marathi or Tamil as often as in English. A property that answers quickly in the guest’s own language wins that booking.
3. Since the GST rate changes of September 2025, GST on hotel stays under ₹7,500 a day has been 5%, down from 12%, but without input tax credit. What did that change for small owners?
For the guest it is simple: a cheaper bill. Homestays and small hotels that price below ₹7,500 a night moved to the 5% rate.
For the owner it is a mixed result. Losing input tax credit means the GST paid on a renovation, new linen or a housekeeping contract is now a cost the owner carries. An owner who used to claim that credit back has to look at the margin again. The other part people forget is the invoice. Corporate guests, offsite groups and wedding planners still need a proper GST invoice, and a property that cannot produce one from its own booking records loses that business to the hotel down the road.
4. In your column you argued that small owners should sell on more than one booking site. The obvious objection is the risk of selling the same night twice. How do you answer it?
The risk is real. A clash means a cancelled guest, a bad review, maybe a penalty from the site, and an owner on the phone all weekend. I would never tell an owner to ignore it.
The answer is to plan for it. Keep one master calendar that every booking is checked against, and decide before it happens who on the team settles a clash and how fast. The risk on the other side is quieter. A property on one site lives by that site’s ranking rules and commission. When either changes, the owner finds out from an empty calendar. The Indian guest is shopping on several apps already, so the property should be on more than one of them.
5. Many Indian villas and homestays belong to a family, with several owners. What do they need to agree on as bookings grow?
How the money is split, written down. Commission by booking site, cleaning, staff and repairs, and then each owner’s share, all from the same record every month. When three brothers share a villa in Alibaug, the arguments are usually about whose share was what in October.
A clean monthly statement also gives the property a history. A lender asks for it, a buyer asks for it, and the family has something to show when one owner wants to sell out.
6. Where do small properties lose money most often as they get busier?
Between check-out and the next check-in. A busier calendar means more same-day turnovers, and a team of two or three people cannot clean, restock, fix the geyser and greet the next family in four hours unless the work is planned. The guest who walks in to an unmade bed writes the review, and that review shapes the bookings that follow.
What works is a checklist for every turnover, a named person for each task, and a note of what broke so it gets repaired before the weekend.
7. What should an owner do before the December holidays?
Three things. List on at least one global booking site and one Indian one, because the traveller in these numbers shops on both. Put every booking into one master calendar and agree who settles a clash. And make sure the booking records can produce a GST invoice and a monthly owner statement, because December is when the corporate groups and the family arguments both arrive.
Airbnb has also reported that about 35% of guests whose first booking on its platform was a hotel came back to book a home, which HospitalityTech Edition covered in Airbnb Lists Thousands of Hotels, Still a Single-Digit Share of Nights. Owners who get their records ready now will be in a better position to keep that guest.
Source: Airbnb, Q3 2026 shareholder letter (SEC Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.1); MakeMyTrip, Q2 fiscal 2027 results (SEC Form 6-K, Exhibit 99.1); Press Information Bureau, GST rate changes for tourism and hotels.
