Nestaway cuts rates, waives service charges amid Covid-19 outbreak

Online home rental marketplace Nestaway Technologies has slashed its one-time charge by half for tenants moving from a paying guest (PG) accommodation into one of its homes during the Covid-19 outbreak.

The Bengaluru headquartered company has also cut rates and waived off service charges up to $1 million for new tenants moving into its homes, it said in a statement. 

Read: Exclusive: Goldman Sachs-backed Nestaway buys StayAbode to accelerate co-living play

“In this situation, we want to be meaningfully helpful to them... If things worsen further, we will work with our owners to make it more affordable,” Amarendra Sahu, CEO and co-founder, Nestaway, said.

Founded in 2015 by National Institute of Technology (NIT) Surathkal alumni Sahu, Smruti Parida, Deepak Dhar and Jitendra Jagadev, Nestaway provides brokerage-free fully furnished homes and rooms for rent. Last year, both Dhar and Parida quit the company to set up their own venture.

The company’s inventory includes over 6,000 houses and more than 4,500 private rooms across 19 cities in India, it said. 

Read: NestAway loses a second founder as CTO Smruti Parida bids adieu

“Young folks in PGs in cities are caught between a rock and a hard place during these times. On one hand, most of them are from small towns and can’t go back as their homes may not have broadband to avail work from home. Moreover, the coming months are the time for new jobs and job changes,” Sahu added.

Read: NestAway acquires apartment management company ApnaComplex

In September, Nestaway Technologies entered the co-living market with a new subsidiary called Hello World, which caters to the co-living and student housing markets. Incorporated in March 2019, Hello World already has a presence in 15 cities including Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Delhi NCR, Pune, Kota and Dehradun. Overall, it has a capacity of 10, 000 beds at present.