Villas in, homestay out?

After homestays, it is now ‘serviced villas’ that seem to have captured the city’s imagination.

The ‘serviced villa’ programme was launched by the Tourism Department two years ago in a bid to promote affordable lodging facilities for tourists to meet the growing demands.

But though most of the other norms needed to make a house are similar to that of a homestay, the serviced villa has one significant plus point as against the homestay.

While in a homestay it is necessary that the owner and the family stay at the house with the tourists, in serviced villa, only suitable employees are needed.

As such in a state like Kerala, which has as many as 11 lakh houses in the state vacant as per the latest census, the serviced villas come as an opportunity to make a good deal of money.

And as far as making use of the opportunity is concerned, Ernakulam seems much ahead of the others.

Out of the 28 accredited serviced villas in the state, 12 are from Ernakulam. Six others are all set to get approval in the coming days. “We get enquiries about the serviced villa on an everyday basis.

In fact, though it was first envisaged for vacant houses, some persons have now approached us with making houses specifically for marketing them as serviced villas,” said K S Shine from the Tourism Department Ernakulam.

In fact, even five star hotel owners are approaching for accreditation for service villas looking at its scope to provide homely and customised care to its customers.

The fact that even oneroomed vacant houses can be converted into serviced villas is an attraction. “Many prefer the idea of a serviced villa because of socio-cultural reasons.

The only option earlier was homestays.But since it is not always considered respectable for families to house tourists with them, many are reluctant to go forward.

The serviced villas meanwhile is a much better option here,” said the Tourist Information Officer, Sugantha. But the facility has its set of problems too.For one, before giving the approval, a joint inspection by an approval committee has to be conducted.

This committee should have the go-ahead from the district panchayat president, the joint director of tourism, secretary of DTPC, District Officer of Tourism Department, Representative of Food Craft Institute and representative of the local body concerned.

For one, to get all these persons from various agencies and departments to sign itself is a tedious process.