Creating a home away from home
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Home stay is a potential concept that Coimbatore can tap, writes M. Soundariya Preetha
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— Photo: K. Ananthan
Comfort zones : The 125-year-old waterfall ropeway bungalow ’Indraprasta’ is a homestay amid tea gardens at the Waterfall Estate in Valparai.
Home stay is a concept that took off in the country initially in Karnataka and Sikkim and now prevalent in various States. Old bungalows, ancestral homes and houses with an additional room or two are rented out to guests with home made food. Though the concept has a number of takers among the foreign tourists, domestic travellers prefer more independence and privacy in their vacation. And, home stays now include cottages and individual homes with food.
Cultural exposure
Explaining the concept, Bindu V.T. who is a lecturer in Tourism Management at Avinashilingam University, says home stay is an extension of the bed and breakfast system common in foreign countries. Travellers get to experience the local culture, cuisine and hospitality in a home stay.
The service comes with personal care. However, now farm houses and villas are also available for home stays with someone to cook food and clean the rooms.
Hygiene
Hygiene is important in a home stay and it should have basic facilities such as an attached wash. It is better to retain the traditional touch and the homely ambience.
In Coimbatore, the houses need not have even air conditioning. It will be better if the guests need not look out for other agencies for transportation needs.
Home stays should preferably be for short periods, she adds.
The guests get a cultural exposure to the area, and in Coimbatore, home stays can be used to promote the local cuisine. Santosh, who runs a website on home stays, says such stays for domestic travellers are more commercialised now. Domestic tourists prefer a larger space for themselves and hence go in for cottages for their weekend getaways. Traditionally, a home stay means sharing the guest room and family table with travellers for a specific period. The guests get to move around with the family during their stay. Good home stays are even now available in pockets away from the cities and the home stays, in the traditional sense, are few in number too. K.V. Ganapathi, who was the chairman of INTEC 2008 organised by the Coimbatore District Small Industries Association, says a number of residents in Coimbatore came forward to share their house with guests when the association tried promoting the concept during its industrial fair this year.
Nearly 100 rooms were available for home stays here during the event and some offered food and transport facilities too.
More fairs were scheduled by different associations in Coimbatore and this would see a large number of people coming to the city for these events. With paucity in hotel rooms, home stays would become popular soon. Apart from these, bulk need of rooms for family celebrations, industry guests and service personnel created a demand for such types of accommodation. In some neighbourhoods in the city, marriage contractors have taken on lease houses to provide accommodation for guests, he points out.
Further, it gives an additional income to the residents, motivates entrepreneurship and innovation. People can start by renting out one or two rooms and expand it later too.
He explains that with high land prices, Coimbatore is not attracting many hotel projects. However, it has a large number of business visitors. Hence, more number of residents should be brought under the home stay network and the concept should be promoted jointly.
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