What about the numbers nobody tells hosts?

India's homestay and short-term rental market is worth an estimated $1.2 to 3.5 billion in gross bookings, growing 14 to 19% a year, one of the fastest-growing such markets anywhere. Airbnb itself has called India one of its fastest-growing markets, nights booked up 50% year-on-year in the last quarter of 2025 alone. Roughly 156,000 Indian listings are live on Airbnb today. MakeMyTrip added 49,000 new homestay rooms in a single quarter, up 35% year-on-year, and homestays now make up one in every

What about the newer channel: ai search?

There is a newer channel too, and you do not need to be technical to understand why it matters. People are starting to ask ChatGPT or Gemini for the best homestay in a place, the same way they used to type it into Google. When your property is listed with us, it becomes part of a catalogue those AI tools can actually read and recommend directly, we already publish one for the homes on fursat.fun. And because a Fursat booking always closes with a real person on WhatsApp, not an anonymous form, wh

What about what actually changed at booking.com?

Booking.com is pulling host-set prepaid rates and routing guest payment through its own system, Payments by Booking, which it holds and pays out on its own schedule. Its virtual-card processing fee is going up too, from around 1% to about 3%. The platform's stated reason is fraud, fake prepayment links, which is a real problem worth solving. The practical effect for you is that the cash-flow tool you used to lock in a booking now sits on Booking's side, at a higher fee, on their timeline, not yo

What about what we actually do?

You already do the hard part of this business, the actual welcome. Booking.com is not a new skill to learn, it is one more door with the same welcome behind it, and the door is the only thing we are asking to open.

What about always the first to answer?

One more thing, plainly, because it changes how many of these bookings you actually win in the first place: we answer every guest message the moment it arrives, at 2pm or 2am. A good share of homestay bookings happen in the last few hours before someone needs the room, and between two similar listings, the traveller usually books whichever host answers first. Every major OTA also factors response speed into how visible your listing is to the next guest, so answering fast is not only about winnin

What about when you actually get paid?

Here is when you actually get paid, plainly, since that question sits under everything above. Bookings through the new channels are prepaid by default, and released to you every Thursday. Agoda is the one exception: Agoda pays us on a 30-day cycle, so an Agoda booking reaches you 5 days after we receive it, not the usual Thursday. None of this touches Airbnb, that keeps working exactly as it already does, paid to you directly the same way it always has.

What about what it costs?

Here is what it costs, plainly: ₹499 a week per property, first week free. On top of that, 10% of the revenue from the new channels we build for you, nothing on your existing Airbnb. If the new channels do not earn anything, you are only ever at the ₹499. Cancel any time, there is nothing to unwind on your side because your Airbnb was never ours to hold.

Will you touch my existing Airbnb account?

We connect to it, with your authorization through your own Airbnb dashboard, never your password, so your calendar stays in sync and a booking on one channel closes the date everywhere else. Your account, reviews, ranking, and payouts stay exactly as they are. If you have more than one room, we typically also add per-room listings under that same account, so guests can book individually or the whole property.

What does this actually cost?

₹499 a week per property, first week free, plus 10% of the revenue from the new channels only. Nothing on your existing Airbnb. Cancel any time.

What if I am not listed anywhere except Airbnb?

That is fine. We can build and manage new listings for you, including the tax and verification steps, and bring them live as each channel's own process allows.

Journal/Homestay Guides

9 min read · 12 July 2026

You Don't Have to Choose Between Airbnb and Booking.com

Hosting is a craft before it's a business. What the data says about India's homestay boom, why Booking.com's prepayment change spooked hosts, and how to add new channels without losing control of the account you already built.

Two guests in hotel robes reading over breakfast in bed

Yogesh Bansal

Co-founder at Fursat, and a host himself for 10 years.

airbnbbooking-comhomestay-hosts

Keep reading.

P.S. A few things hosts usually ask me after reading this far, so let me answer them here too.