Varun Arora of EkoStay on Redefining Premium Homestays, Experience-Driven Travel, and Building Scalable Alternative Hospitality

StartupTalky presents Recap'25, a series of exclusive interviews where we connect with founders and industry leaders to reflect on their journey in 2025 and discuss their vision for the future.

In this edition of Recap’25, StartupTalky speaks with Varun Arora, Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder of EkoStay, who reflects on a year marked by the maturing of India’s alternative accommodation landscape. Arora shares how EkoStay evolved to meet the modern traveller’s desire for privacy, design-led spaces, and dependable service—bridging the gap between personalised hospitality and professional consistency. He discusses strategic geographic expansion across leisure destinations, changing guest behaviour around short getaways and last-minute bookings, and the growing importance of aesthetics, experiences, and reliability at scale. Varun also highlights how data, automation, and operational rigor helped strengthen supply quality, and outlines the opportunities ahead in India’s premium homestay and villa rental market as EkoStay enters 2026 with a sharper focus on design, technology, and experience-driven stays.

StartupTalky: How would you describe the brand’s evolution in 2025, and what core problem are you solving for modern travellers today?

Varun Arora: This year has been about maturing the idea of what alternative accommodation can truly offer. I’ve seen travellers move decisively toward private, design-led, and experience-driven stays, and our focus has been on building a model that serves this new mindset. People today want reliability without losing the warmth of a home, and they want comfort without the rigidity of a hotel. What we’ve tried to solve is the gap between personalised hospitality and professional consistency. The evolution has been about refining operations, elevating design standards, and ensuring that the experience feels seamless from booking to checkout.

StartupTalky: What were the key operational, geographic, or portfolio expansions you executed this year? How have these shaped your supply strength and customer experience?

Varun Arora: This year, we focused on strengthening our presence across high-demand leisure destinations while expanding into newer pockets where traveller interest has grown sharply. We added several well-designed homes across Ooty and Kodaikanal, and also expanded our footprint with multiple properties across Maharashtra’s most popular getaway corridors such as Lonavala, Alibaug, Karjat, and Igatpuri. We further added villas in Goa and Pune to deepen our presence in markets that consistently attract both short and extended-stay travellers.

Alongside geographic expansion, we invested in stronger on-ground service teams, better partner onboarding, and more refined quality-control processes. These efforts have helped create a more dependable supply base and ensured that the guest experience feels smoother and more consistent, no matter which destination they choose.

StartupTalky: The vacation rental ecosystem is getting more competitive. Which guest behaviour patterns stood out for you in 2025?

Varun Arora: Several patterns stood out. Travellers are planning more short, frequent breaks instead of a few long vacations, and many are choosing driveable destinations. We’ve also noticed a significant rise in last-minute planning, which naturally translates into a strong surge of last-minute bookings across multiple locations. Group travel continues to dominate families, friends, and workcation groups are looking for homes with good communal spaces. Guests are spending more on curated food, in-stay experiences, and amenities that elevate the mood of the stay. Aesthetic appeal influences bookings more than ever, and the demand for pet-friendly, child-friendly, and well-designed homes continues to grow.

StartupTalky:  What were some impactful marketing or demand-generation strategies that worked in 2025?

Varun Arora: What worked best this year was leaning into authenticity. Real guest stories, visual narratives, and destination-led content resonated strongly. Instead of heavy promotions, we put energy into highlighting the stay experience and local culture. Collaborations with micro-creators, personalised pre-arrival communication, and better post-stay engagement helped build loyalty. One pleasant surprise was how powerfully word-of-mouth worked when we focused on delight rather than discounts genuine service created its own demand.

StartupTalky:  Quality control and service consistency remain challenges. What helped you maintain reliability at scale?

Varun Arora: Reliability has come from treating operations as the core product. We built stronger checklists, improved partner training, and ensured that on-ground teams understood the vision of the stay, not just the task list. Technology played a part too from real-time reporting to structured audits but the real difference came from empowering local teams and creating accountability. Partnerships with trusted vendors for housekeeping, linen, and maintenance also helped us deliver a more uniform experience, no matter the destination.

StartupTalky:  How have you leveraged data, automation, or AI-driven tools this year?

Varun Arora: We leaned on data to make decisions that improve both guest experience and operational efficiency. Automated communication helped guests feel more informed before and during the stay, while dynamic pricing tools supported better occupancy balancing. On the backend, AI-assisted insights gave us a clearer view of what destinations and property types were seeing the strongest traction. Automation in property management, reporting, and supply onboarding has helped reduce friction and brought more predictability to day-to-day functioning.

StartupTalky:  As you enter 2026, what are the biggest opportunities in India’s premium homestay and villa rental market? What are your strategic priorities?

Varun Arora: The opportunity ahead lies in the growing desire for design-forward, experiential, and technology-enabled stays. Travellers want privacy but also the reliability of a managed brand; they want local immersion without sacrificing comfort. For 2026, the priorities are to deepen our presence in high-potential leisure zones, elevate design and service benchmarks, and build a stronger layer of tech that makes the entire journey search, booking, stay, and after-care more intuitive. There’s tremendous potential in creating homes that feel aspirational yet accessible, and that’s the space I’m most excited to shape in the coming year.

Explore more Recap'25 interviews here.