Interviewed By MBR Team

MBR: What prompted you to come up with the idea of Chaya? How far have you reached in achieving your targets for Chaya?

Chaya: With the recent increase in social media adoption and content creators all over the country over the past few years, there appears to be a common
recurring problem among the urban youth.

‘Where do we shoot?’

We ourselves faced this issue several times before and figured that there had to be a more sustainable solution to content production and delivery. It wasn’t as though there weren’t existing outlets to take pictures and videos, there was just no single discovery engine that could streamline this process.

CHAYA started as a platform that allowed businesses/homeowners to monetize their underutilized assets, by renting out to people for production. Since then we’ve evolved into a platform that can be used to book all kinds of events, meetings, homes, and experiences.

Since October of 2019, we’ve listed over 80 unique spaces and experiences that users can easily find and book through our website.

MBR: How has the pandemic affected your business? What measures did you take in order to keep your business running?

Chaya: The initial onslaught of the lockdown in 2020 rendered us, and the rest of the industry inoperable. We were unable to list new spaces, and bookings had come to a halt. Fortunately for us, our business model is very asset-light, and we were able to keep the business running remotely with minimal fixed costs.
Near the end of the first lockdown, around September 2020, the industry experienced a rubber-band effect as a result of repressed consumers and we received a massive spike in bookings and listings for the coming few months. CHAYA could now cater to safe, private bookings for people wanting to meet their loved ones.
However, with each consecutive lockdown, our sales would drop and we needed to adapt to a less volatile model. We have since expanded
our services to providing Stays, where people can rent out a room or apartment for shortto-long term living, with all the necessary facilities and furnishings one could require. 

MBR: What challenges did you encounter bringing Chaya into existence and how did you mitigate those?

Chaya: With every marketplace, there are a number of issues that can arise
1) Disintermediation
In the early days, customers were able to identify spaces and contact them directly, resulting in losses for us. To combat this, we removed all ‘clear’ identifiers from the images of the photos and avoided disclosing the brand names of the businesses in all our communications.
We’ve also upgraded our website to make it as convenient as possible for a user to book through our platform. However this isn’t a complete solution, and we are still working hard to come up with new ways to prevent this. 
2) Quality of Listing
Since customers have to book and pay for the space without physically visiting it, the photos are all they have to judge the space by. Initially, the listing photos provided to us for spaces were of poor quality and failed to highlight the aesthetic
qualities of the property.
We took it upon ourselves to visit each listing and take the photos ourselves. This resulted in a higher conversion rate for our customers and the spacers were able to earn more money.
3) Flexible Prices
A typical venue would charge an obscene amount for renting the whole place out for a day. This is usually out of the budget of our primary customer base who only need it for 2-3 hours.
We then decided to incorporate flexible pricing systems that would allow the customer to book these spaces for shorter durations, and in turn, save a considerable amount of money.

MBR: Do catering services come along with the rented spaces? If not, how is that managed?

Chaya: We have several third-party vendors partnered with us and can incorporate catering, decor, cleaning, and other event services upon request. Some of the venues provide their own catering services, and in some cases, the user is able to arrange for their own food.

MBR: Many customers might be skeptical to rent a space based on pictures only, what strategies did you adopt to win the trust of such skeptical customers?

Chaya: While it is difficult to convert customers solely based on pictures, we’ve implemented several strategies to gain their trust. 
We regularly showcase videos of our listings on our social media accounts, where they can get a full walkthrough of what the space looks like. Due to the aesthetic nature of the spaces, the customers themselves post on social media, which garners more attention and helps build trust among our community.
On top of that, we provide customer service through messaging and answering any questions the customer has.
A lot of these sales are converted through our messages, which means that we can easily open up discussions and gather information about their needs and how we can serve them better. We regularly update the listings on the website based on information gathered from the customer’s queries. 

MBR: While listing spaces, what are the criteria you look into? And what is the overall revenue generation process for your platform?

Chaya: Our basic criteria for space listing is that they have to be safe, i.e. some level of security measures are in place such as guards or security cameras, etc., it can accommodate at least one of the booking purposes listed on our website, and of course that they have the authority or ownership over the space.
After these basic criteria are met, we look to onboard spaces that are more unique or are inaccessible to the public. For example, we have a privately owned vintage 1959 Ford Zephyr listed on CHAYA for photoshoots and weddings.
Our bookings are all request-based, so when a User wishes to book a space, they’ll have to fill out a simple form with booking details. This request goes to the Spacer who chooses to either accept or deny. Once a booking has been accepted, our Users must make full payment in advance to confirm the booking.
Our pre-paid bookings offer payment security to our Spacers. However, we hold this money until after the booking has been successfully completed to provide payment security to our Users. We keep a commission from each successful booking before processing the payment to the Spacer. As listing on our platform is free, we only make money when our Spacers make money.