Simona Mohan (28)
Co-founder, Raho Hospitalities
As with every 20-something, Simona Mohan and her friends were on a hunt for a New Year’s escape a few Decembers ago. A holiday in Coorg, dealing with subpar accommodation, planted the seed that eventually became Raho Hospitalities—an experience-led, mass-premium homestay brand that offers curated, end-to-end holiday experiences in non-urban leisure destinations.
Mohan, along with family friends Sidharth and Gautham Somana, twin brothers aged 35, started a pilot project two years ago with a single, family-owned, two-bedroom cottage in Coorg. “We did some simple decor, changed the bedsheets, added some paintings, and spent less than ₹5,000 on the project,” Mohan says. “We listed it on Airbnb to test it out, and we saw high occupancies of about 85 percent.”
At the time, Mohan was working in politics, drafting election manifestos, writing papers for MPs, and tracking parliamentary sessions. Sidharth, who was on a gap year from university, focussed on Raho, while Gautham was studying in the US. Mohan was helping with operations and on-ground guest service part-time. Sidharth had to return to university in the US the following year, and Mohan took charge.
“That’s when I started to enjoy the process. I quit the policy space completely and started doing it full-time,” she says.
Raho operates via a hub-and-spoke model: It sets up clusters of 40 to 100 rooms within a 30-minute radius to create micro-tourism hubs. This allows them to easily access and manage these properties from a central location within that zone.
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Raho’s tagline says that it begins where Airbnb ends. “Airbnb and other OTA platforms like MakeMyTrip or Booking.com will only provide a listing; they won’t manage the property,” says Mohan. Raho partners with property owners, redesigns and standardises homes, and operates them end-to-end to deliver holiday experiences. “This includes not just the stay, but everything from the food to experiences on the ground, including shopping, taxis, local experiences, and even a personal host throughout your stay.”
An average booking with Raho can cost between ₹3,000 and ₹5,000 for a three-bedroom cottage in Coorg for one night. Their target audience is people between the ages of 25 and 40, who are looking for affordable but valuable experiences.
Raho currently has 50 operational rooms in Coorg and is focussed on expanding within the region before moving on to target markets, including Chikmagalur and Wayanad; its goal is to have 100 operational rooms by April.
The company raised a pre-seed round of ₹2.6 crore from Campus Fund and angel investors in April 2025. It operates a multi-channel, asset-light revenue model: Profit-sharing for rooms, 60 percent of which goes to property owners; Raho earns 15 percent commission on direct bookings. Beyond rooms, it earns about 30 percent margins on food and beverage, and 30 percent on curated experiences, services and in-property product sales.
“This blended model maximises guest value, strengthens unit economics at scale, and allows us to reinvest in brand consistency, guest experience, and operational excellence across clusters,” Mohan says.
Raho’s revenue for FY25 was ₹65 lakh; the company’s projected revenue for FY26 is ₹3 crore. It hopes to break even by April.
“Raho adopts a smart model, bridging design and homestay operations. It’s strong on structure, asset-light scalability and consistency. However, to elevate further, it could focus on curated luxury differentiation and stronger brand storytelling,” says Kapil Chopra, founder of EazyDiner and The Postcard Hotel, and 30 Under 30 jury for the hospitality category.
First Published: Jan 14, 2026, 13:35
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