CHAYA, Bangladesh’s first space sharing platform, specialises in connecting homeowners and businesses with users for various purposes. In an interview with ICE Today, Farhia Tabassum, CEO and Mehraab Anwar, COO, elaborates on their venture and future plans.
CHAYA is a unique concept immaculately executed. How did the idea of such a platform emerge?
With the recent increase in social media adoption and content creators across the country over the past few years, a common problem appears to plague the urban youth – ‘Where do we shoot?’
We ourselves faced this issue several times, and figured that there needs to be a more sustainable solution to content production and delivery. It wasn’t as though there weren’t existing spaces ideal for photo and video shoots, there was just no single discovery engine that could streamline this process.
CHAYA started off as a platform that allowed businesses and homeowners to monetize their underutilized assets by renting them out to people for production purposes. Since then, we’ve evolved into a platform that can be used to book 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.
Some might consider investing in a new concept in an untested market risky. What was the motivation behind this pursuit? What were the biggest challenges?
At the beginning we took a big risk to say the least. With little to no information available regarding the market, we only had our gut instincts to follow. We believed in the idea from day one, and we still do. We understand that it will need many iterations before it can become a service that fulfills the needs of many, and we know that we are efficiently providing a solution for a massive problem for thousands of people who struggle to find or rent spaces for their particular needs.
We are problem solvers by nature, and an entrepreneurial pursuit that would help so many people find high quality spaces for their needs quickly was a key motivating factor. The joy of satisfied customers in the end was another big bonus!
Our biggest challenges so far have been building trust among our ‘spacers’ and users. This trust has to be cultivated slowly by building personal relationships with our spacers. As for the users, spending money to book a space they have not visited physically also requires us to build a trustworthy brand and reputation. Moving forward, scaling our business while maintaining that trust is going to be very crucial.
Given that it is a relatively new concept for our market, how has the response been so far? What kind of places do most clients look for?
The response from customers who have used our product has been great. It’s very rewarding to know that CHAYA has helped make someone create memorable life events with their loved ones. The most popular bookings that we get are for photoshoots, birthdays, and romantic dates.
We’ve recently had more restaurants and resorts join our platform, as it has become an easy way for them to monetize their off peak hours. Space owners are quite happy with the additional earnings from this brand new revenue source. We are looking to onboard as many spaces as possible to satisfy this ever-growing demand.
The pandemic must have been a significant impediment to CHAYA’s growth. How would you assess the impact of the pandemic on your business?
The effects of the pandemic have been pretty evident. Starting from the number of bookings to the number of listings, all of our key performance indicators take a major hit every time there is a lockdown. However, as people are becoming more used to the pandemic and adjusting to the new normal, our business is becoming less and less affected.
This of course can also be attributed to our recent launch of CHAYA Stays, where we offer ready to move-in rooms and apartments to young people looking for flexible and easy living options. People are also booking our spaces for short stays or staycations. We will be focusing on more options for these kinds of spaces for our users in future.
Do you believe the space marketplace will have a more mainstream appeal in the coming years? How do you envision CHAYA’s growth over the next decade?
Given the rapid urbanization that is promting masses of people to migrate to cities, the need for spaces will only continue to grow. Once people get used to the convenience of finding the perfect space with flexible leasing terms, and being able to book and move-in within a day without having to burn a hole through their wallets, this market will go mainstream. However, in order to provide this convenience while maintaining quality, we plan to launch our own branded stays, where we will be able to control the entire user experience and potentially increase the standard of living in Bangladesh.
Our vision is to provide a space – for everyone! We aim to become the ultimate space solution that caters to all kinds of space related needs in Bangladesh – be it housing, events, storage, or production. In the next ten years, we envision a market where anyone can locate a space that fits all their requirements with a click of a button.