Hosting
You can get your place listed on SaffronStays with these three easy steps:
Step1: Sign up with SaffronStays using your email or through your account on Facebook. Do remember to get your email and phone number verified subsequently (without this, you cannot entertain bookings).
Step2: This is when you actually get to enter details about your listing. To make your prospective guests feel safe, it is important to provide as much information as possible about yourself and the accommodationyou are providing. Fill out the basic accommodation details and description, upload photos, choose amenities, choose cancellation policy, decide the price for your listing and set your calendar details (explanatory videos can be found on 'ListMyPlace' page). Provide details of yourself, your payout details, in Dashboard/ My Profile. Provide simple verifications to improve your acceptability.
Step3: You are set to host your guests now. Keep a check on notifications for guest booking and respond to booking requests within 24 hours (extended to 72 hours in case of remote locations). Bookings are rejected if you don't reply within 24/72 hours, unless you have selected the Instant Booking Option for your Listing. Once the booking is confirmed,you will receive an SMS alert(coming soon) and email confirmation. We initiate payout to the account number provided by you 24 hours after the Guest has checked-in. If you choose to stipulate a security deposit, it has to be collected from the Guest on arrival and refunded at the time of check-out.
Almost any place in India can be listed on SaffronStays. You should make sure that you have the authority to host guests at the site being listed. Make sure that all the required permissions are sought from the relevant authorities to prevent any inconvenience to your guests.See the Host Service Assurance for more details.
The first set of permissions required would be of the current occupants of the site being listed, like your family members or roommates, who should be open and welcoming of the hosting program. The next set of permissions or notifications should be obtained from the building's cooperative housing society, if applicable,and your neighbours about your plans to host guests.Also check with your local Resident Welfare Association (RWA) and any other applicable local authorities.You could consider registering yourself as a Bed &Breakfast provider under the Incredible India! Bed & Breakfast /Homestay Establishment Scheme.When you start hosting Guests, make sure you register your guest with the Foreigners Regional Registration Office(FRRO) by submitting the Form-C online.
House rules are to be set by hosts for their guests to follow. The house rules should be listed with accommodation details for users to learn beforehand. The house rules should be simple to understand yet have clear instructions for your guests. Consider it as a document containing 'what to do' and 'what not to do' related to your property. Ensure you cover building rules, parking rules, if applicable.
Example: Please no smoking and drinking. If you're going to have any parties, give us a buzz and check if we're fine with it. Put the garbage out in the morning. Lastly, make yourself at home and treat it like your own home.
Please refrain from going to the terrace. The house common areas do not include the terrace.
Avoid smoking in the house, you can do that on the ground floor. Please be careful and do not break anything. If you do, let us know as soon as possible. Treat the place like your own.
Currently our hosting services are only limited to accommodations located in India. So, any property that is not located in India cannot be listed. Leave us your details host@saffronstays.com and we will get back to you when we are ready to offer our services to Hosts outside India.
Currently our hosting services are only limited to accommodations located in India. So, any property that is not located in India cannot be listed. Leave us your details host@saffronstays.com and we will get back to you when we are ready to offer our services to Hosts outside India.
It is generally avoidable to list a property you do not own or legally control. If you do not own the place, you need to ensure you have the necessary authority to list the place (including a contract to act as an agent of the owner and having express authority to rent it as a vacation rental). If you are a lessee, please ensure your landlord/lessor is aware of this arrangement and is ok with the same.This is necessary to protect the Guest from any unnecessary harassment.
For accommodation types listed as B&B, it is mandatory to provide breakfast to the guest. Other than this, there are no mandatory amenities for you to start hosting. Make sure you list only those amenities which would be in working condition during a Guest's visit.
Yes SaffronStays verifies listings. After you provide all the mandatory details for listing your place, SaffronStays will give you a verification call to confirm few simple details. Only after that, a Listing is approved. Few Hosts and their Listings selected by SaffronStays based on the quality of the Listing and experience will be shortlisted to be'Featured' Hosts. Featured Hosts/ Listings will have access to our professional photographers to click pictures of their Listing, our content team to help write their description.
Few Hosts and their Listingsselected by SaffronStays based on the quality of the Listing and experience provided will be shortlisted to be 'Featured' Hosts. Hosts will have access to our professional photographers to click pictures of their Listing, our content team to help write their description.Most importantly, a Featured Host Listing will be displayed at the top for search results and also will be displayed on the home page of SaffronStays.
If you have a Listing that promises a unique experience, you can send in your entry to SaffronStays by mailing us host@saffronstays.com. Write what's exclusive about what you offer, be it an unbeatable location, or a charming house, or a unique accommodation (like a tree-house, or houseboat). SaffronStays will verify your entry and every month 5 such Listings will be showcased as Featured hosts for the following month on the home page.Past Featured Listings will continue to carry the 'Featured' icon and will continue to be displayed at the top of search results.SaffronStays may run this contest for specific regions in some months of the year to capture an upcoming event or festival.
SaffronStays expects all its guests to respect the Host and the Listing he chooses to stay at.It has prescribed specific guidelines in Responsible Guest for the guest to follow. If however, a guest behaves to the contrary, SaffronStays empowers its Host to write a review on his Guests. This review will be posted on the Guest's profile and affects his Trust meter.
Cancellations
The Cancellation policy at SaffronStays has been specifically drafted to protect the interests of both the guest and the host. SaffronStays has three basic policies for cancellation - flexible, moderate and strict and a special rates policy, which wholesomely cover the cancellations issue.
A nominal cancellation fee of 5% is charged for every refund processed by SaffronStays so as to cover the payment gateway charges and minimal processing fees. Service tax would be charged on this amount at applicable rates. The guest fees payable to Saffron Stays are non refundable across all the cancellation policies.
The Flexible cancellation policy is recommended for hosts when you are new to hosting and want to attract as many guests as possible. You give a lot of freedom to your guests. The flexible cancellation policy document states that guests get to cancel the reservation uptoone day (24 hours) prior to the booking day check-in time. The Guest is eligible for full refund of accommodation fee and cleaning fee. Learn more about the flexible cancellation policy in Cancellation Policy document.
The moderate cancellation policy states that a guest can cancel a reservation upto 5 full days prior to the booked date check-in time, to be eligible for a 100% refund (accommodation fees and cleaning fees). If you're a confused which one to take, the moderate policy is good anytime.Learn more about the moderate cancellation policy in the Cancellation policy document.
Strict cancellation policy works best when you have offered special rates or when you are being flooded with booking requests. You should consider having lower pricing for Listings that have a Strict Cancellation Policy.The strict cancellation policy states that a guest is eligible for a 50% refund of accommodation fees and cleaning fees, only if he/she cancels the reservations upto 10 days prior to the day of check-in. Learn more about the strict cancellation policy in Cancellation Policy.
In case you choose to accept Cash on Arrival for your Listing, SaffronStays will collect only the Guest fee from the Guest at the time of booking. SaffronStays doesnot, in such cases, take any responsibility of the payment obligations of the Guest. Consequently, in case a Guest cancels or there is a no-show, SaffronStays maynot be in a position to make good the loss to the Host. The cancellation policy chosen by the Host is therefore overridden.
Payouts (TBD)
Host fees are 15% on the accommodation fees and cleaning fees charged to the host by SaffronStays. Other than this, hosting is completely free.
Zaakpay is a Sequioa Capital funded Payment Gateway. When a guest clicks on the pay option at SaffronStays, the request is redirected to ZAAKPAY's secured payment gateway where the necessary banking details have to be filled in, depending on the preferred mode of payment (credit cards, debit cards, Netbanking). On successful completion of the transaction an acknowledgement is displayed.
All payments to Hosts by SaffronStays are made through the NEFT process to the bank account specified by you in Dashboard, under the Profile tab, Payout mode tab.
The bank account number to be provided during listing your accommodation would be used for NEFT transactions. You can verify/modify these details in Dashboard, under Profile tab, Payment Mode tab. The Host fee plus service charge is deducted therefrom before such remittance. Host can check payments due to him in Dashboard/Bookings/Upcoming reservations. Funds are collected in advance and kept with SaffronStays to protect the interest of Guest (in case a travel issue crops up) and Host (by ensuring he does not have to chase the Guest for payment after the service is rendered).
National Electronic Funds Transfer is one of the two major services offered by the Reserve Bank of India to process one-to-one money transfers across the country. The NEFT services can be availed through account at an NEFT compliant bank but those without an account too can avail of the service by mentioning specific instructions during transfer.
When a guest clicks on the pay option at SaffronStays, the request is redirected to the service provider's secured payment gateway where the necessary banking details have to be filled in, depending on the preferred mode of payment (credit cards, debit cards, netbanking). On successful completion of the transaction an acknowledgement is displayed. Make sure you don't close the browser or refresh the browser while a transaction is being processed which might lead to complications. All online payments processed at SaffronStays will be INR only as Zaakpay accepts payments in INR. Foreign cards will be charged in INR as well as the refunds processed by SaffronStays. Rates indicated on our site in USD/Euro/Sterling are indicative. All prices/ charges/Transactions will be processed in INR only.
The Indian Financial System Code (IFSC) is an alphanumeric code generated by the RBI to uniquely identify bank branches in India. This is an 11 digit code with 4 characters identifying the banks code, the next character is reserved as a control character and the remaining six characters represent the branch.
The Reserve Bank of India website has a regularly updated list of banks and branches which are NEFT compliant. You can check your bank's status at https://www.rbi.org.in/scripts/neft.aspx
Funds are collected in advance at the time of booking confirmation from the guest and kept with SaffronStays to protect the interest of both the guest and the host. A host's interests are protected by ensuring he receives only genuine booking requests.
Listings
You can edit your listing on Dashboard page, under theListings tab and selecting the Edit Listing option against the Listing that you want to edit.Alternatively, you can type your vanity URL and click on your Listing. This opens the preview mode. Click on 'Click here to Edit' button to edit any details
You will encounter a form similar to the one you had experienced while adding your Listing for the firsttime. You can change the details in the Listing, including fields like home type, room type, accommodates (number of guests), location, etc. The description containsa title, a quick note about the listing and detailed description. Do not enter contact details in the description area. A maximum of 20 photos and 3 videos of the accommodation can be uploaded with a max of 30 characters description of the photo. Make use of the cloning option made available by SaffronStays so that you don't have to enter every detail for similar listings.
The pricing settings can be found on the Dashboard page under Listings tab. Click on Edit Listing option against the Listing whose pricing you wish to change. Alternatively, you can type your vanity URL and click on your Listing. This opens the preview mode. Click on 'Click here to Edit' button to edit any details.
Revised pricing would be applicable only to the bookings made post the changes in pricing without affecting the pre-change bookings or any other bookings which have already been accepted.
Any listing created on SaffronStays is first verified by us and then listed. So, if you have created a new listing, your accommodation willbe displayed as 'Pending Verification'till it is verified. Your listing could also be temporarily suspended or deactivated for non-fulfilment of Host Service Assurance. Contact our team here to know more about the exact details of suspension/deactivation of your Listing.
Yes, multiple rooms can be listed on SaffronStays. You can make individual listings for every room you want to be featured on SaffronStays with complete details like accommodation type, photos, calendar details, amenities and others. However, SaffronStays also allows you the freedom to list a set of rooms as one Listing. For example, you could list your entire 3 BHK apartment as one Listing instead of creating each room as a separate Listing.
You can list any number of accommodations by creating an individual listing for every accommodation you wish to be featured on SaffronStays. Be it two rooms in the same house or two accommodations at different locations, if you expect to accept bookings individually for each of these accommodations, then you should list them individually. Follow the process as mentioned in the hosting process for every listing.Click here to 'List MyPlace'. For your convenience, we have added a feature 'Clone', so that separate Listings can be created for rooms with similar features and reduce duplication of work. Clone button is located on Dashboard page under Listings tab, next to each Active and Approved Listing.
Getting your pricing right solely depends on the type of accommodation you provide, the site location, general pricing observed in the locality and your previous ratings. For first-time hosts, it is advised to keep the prices low, so as to gain popularity amongst the travellers. Pricing can be revised later on, once you have had ample guests and command ahigh'Trust Meter' score.
Activating or deactivating a SaffronStays listing is done through the toggle switch located on the Dashboard page, Listings tab, against each 'Approved' Listing. You can temporarily deactivate your Listing. You cannot permanently delete a Listing,giving you a chance to reactivate the Listing,anytime in the future, without having to go through the whole form filling procedure again. SaffronStays may, at its sole discretion, permanently delete or deactivate a Listing or a Host in case the Host does not comply with the 'Host Service Assurance'.
Use the feedback received to improve your service quality, maybe also drop pricing. You could also make your potential guests aware of genuine or temporary shortcomings (for eg, a noisy neighbourhood, or access road to the Listing being repaired causing traffic snarls). SaffronStays does not control the rating and review module and therefore cannot alter the rankings in any way.
Your Guests have no other visual aid to judge your accommodation, other than the photos you provide. The photographs of your listing will give your Guest a glimpse of what to expect, if they decide to stay at your accommodation.Hence it's important to give accurate description and photos. Do take a minute to write a description of each photo.
No, you don't have to enter them again. Once signed in, the portal saves details as you enter them.
You could add in the description section of the Listing any additional amenities you would like to cover.
Ideally, photos of a property should cover the property and its amenities entirely. Include photos of the bedrooms, washroom, common areas, external facadeand the food served, if applicable.If your Listing has views to boast of (like an important monument, or the sea or mountains or a park), please do add a picture of it. It will improve your chances of being shortlisted.
You could add in the description section of the Listing any additional landmarks you would like to mention.
You could add in the description section of the Listing any additional information you would like to mention.
SaffronStays works on Trust and Safety. To be a User on SaffronStays, you need to have your email verified at the very least. To ensure that only genuine Listings are posted on the website, SaffronStays insists on phone verification from a host and encourages the host to add another offline verification. Social verifications include Facebook, LinkedIN, Google+ and Twitter. More the verifications you add for yourself, higher is your chance of gaining a guest's trust.
A host needs to have a verified email id, phone number at the very least to start hosting. Hosts are also encouraged to provide offline verifications, like a PAN card, AADHAAR card, drivers licence, etc. Social verifications include Facebook, LinkedIN, Google+ and Twitter. More the verifications you add for yourself, higher is your chance of gaining a guest's trust.
Dashboard gives the User a view of his/her Listings, Profile, Bookings and Trips. The User can edit/modify/deactivate his Listings, Profile through the Dashboard.He/She can check upcoming/past bookings for his/ her Listings under Bookings and trips that he/she has booked under My Trips.
Every listing posted on the SaffronStays website is verified mandatorily. So as a host you don't have to take any extra efforts to get your listing SaffronStays verified.
Any listing posted on the SaffronStays website will not be activated to accept guest bookings unless it is verified by SaffronStays. Therefore, as host it is important for you to extend full cooperation during the verification process and provide correct information to start earning as soon as possible.
In a few locations, SaffronStays verifies the actual pictures of the Listing. These pictures get the 'SaffronStays verified' watermark.
Bookings
On receiving a booking request,there are two possible scenarios for a Host, either to accept the booking or reject it. You can read up about the Guest's profile before deciding on accepting the request. Check the listing calendar and accept the booking. If any of these conditions are not satisfied, you have the option to reject the booking request. Hosts who have selected the instant booking option for a particular property listing do not receive this request e-mail and the booking is confirmed immediately. To minimise rejections due to non-availability, we request you to keep your calendar updated on a regular basis. Bookings lapse if you do not accept the booking requests within 24 hours (or 72 hours in case of remote locations). A lapsed booking affects your response time, so ensure you respond to booking requests.
No, you cannot call a guest before booking has been confirmed. You can contact them once the booking has been confirmed.
Yes, you can decline bookingrequests. Whilst you can decline a request, repeated declines could affect your acceptance rate score. SaffronStays may also decide to delist your Listing if there are frequent cancellations.
Cancelling a booking, once it has been accepted by the Hostshould be avoided. If cancellation is unavoidable, every host is expected to try and provide an alternate listing of similar or better standards. To cancel a booking you need to click on Cancel option against the confirmed booking in Dashboard page under the Bookings tab. You need to provide reason for the cancellation. Whena Host cancels, a review is automatically posted on his Listing. Cancellation by a Host negatively affects the ratings and can attract other penalties including financial penalties and delisting from the Site. Please do read Terms of Service more details.
You get a 24-hour time limit to respond to any guest bookingrequest. If your Listing is registered as a 'remote location', you get 72 hours to reply. If you do not confirm the request within the specified 24 hour/ 72 hour limit, the request lapses. A lapsed booking affects your response time, so ensure you respond to booking requests.
As a Host, we understand that you need to be comfortable with the Guests who will be staying in your accommodation. To this end, you can set specific reservation preferences whilst listing your space. You can also see their profiles, read reviews on them and viewtheir 'Trust Meter' to judge whether you would be at ease while hosting them.
As a host, you may choose to charge the guests a certain fixed amount for the duration of their stay as a guarantee in case any untoward incident takes place.Amount for the security deposit is to be decided by the host with SaffronStays playing no part in it. The deposit is to be collected by the hosts from the guests at the time of check-in and refunded at check-out.The safety deposit transactions are completely offline. The Host needs to clearly specify the security deposit applicable in his/her Listing on the Site. As a safety measure, we encourage hosts not to keep any high value items or fragile itemsat the Listing. Charging a low security deposit or not charging at all would also boost your chances of attracting more guests.
The amount to be charged as the security deposit is best left to your discernment. The amount to be charged should depend on the amenities present in the room or accommodation. So, if you don't have any luxury amenities in the accommodation provided (single rooms, dormitory rooms) it is advised to keep the security deposit low or Nil. Charging a low security deposit or not charging at all would also boost your chances of attracting more guests.
As a host when you select the instant booking mode for any property listed on SaffronStays, the mandatory booking approval process is by-passed and guest booking requests are accepted by default for that particular accommodation. It is a time saving measure for both the guest and the host which ensures direct bookings. During off season, activating the instant booking feature will ensure you don't miss out on booking because of the automatic 24-hour lapse. This feature could be more effective if your Listing is exclusively listed on the SaffronStays portal or you keep your calendar updated regularly.Instant booking increases your chances of attracting more reservations.
Cleaning fees are charged by the host for maintenance and upkeep of the accommodation during the guests stay. They could be charged on a daily basis or on a one-time per booking basis. The cleaning fees are included in the total fees payable by the guests.
All of your past and upcoming bookings can be viewed on your Dashboard, under the Bookings tab.
If a host makeshis/herListing inactive, all confirmed bookings remain live and the host has to complete his obligations towards such bookings. If a Listing is made inactive or delisted by SaffronStays due to non-compliance with Host Service Assurance, all future bookings get automatically cancelled. The Guest gets full refund of Accommodation fee and Guest fee paid.
