Tribe Student Accommodation and CoLiving has announced expansion by introducing a hybrid hospitality segment with a view to build on more co-living spaces across Pune and Indore. From its current presence of close to 500 beds across Mumbai & Pune, Tribe will not only expand its geographical presence across Pune and enter the Indore market but also will add 5000 beds by 2026. According to a report by JLL India, the ‘co-living’ market in the country is expected to grow at a CAGR of 17 per cent in the next five years to touch nearly USD 40 Billion and Tribe plans to capture a significant share of this market. 

Under this, Tribe also aims to expand its target group to corporates, leisure travelers or professionals looking for flexible durations for their stays. In its growth journey so far, Tribe has followed an earn model as opposed to the burn model and has seen profitable growth across the years. Tribe sees some of India’s highest retention rates of over 50% – resulting in much higher overall occupancy than the standard 64% in the hospitality industry. Tribe averages 85-95% occupancy through the year currently.

As a part of this, Tribe will offer a hospitality operator model (OPM Model). This is a standard revenue share model whereby Tribe will associate with real estate players across and build establishments that will increase the revenue and overall utilization of the properties. 

Talking about the expansion, Yogesh Mehra & Shantam Mehra, Founders, Tribe Stays said, “We have witnessed that fixed rent with CAPEX investment and OPEX seldom works in the hospitality industry and is not sustainable long term. We’ve decided to move purely to the OPM model to provide a high upside to landlords and build a long term sustainable business. We want a win-win for all parties involved and to build a partnership with our landlords. We want to be as transparent as possible. In our next leg of expansion, we want to create a model that’s profitable for all. The idea is to monetize the property to its maximum potential and give customers a good place that they can call home. We are open to partnerships across finance and real estate while we spearhead this growth.”

Talking about the market potential, Aman Mehra, CMO, Tribe Stays, said, “The demand for short stays in the Rs. 3000-5000/night is sky-rocketing – from corporates as well as customers. We want Tribe to be as flexible as possible to cater to this demand. We are already seeing success of 90%+ occupancy across our properties in short and long stays. “1 day to 1 year” is our philosophy moving forward. We want to be design, quality and community focused driven by great Tech. with a young target market in mind. Tribe is unique in terms of design and experience compared to any existing player in this segment.”

Tribe aims to deploy new funds for property expansion, tech & business operations. Tribe is looking to expand to 5000 beds in the next 18-24 months across Pune, Mumbai, Goa, Hyderabad, Delhi, Gurgaon, Indore and Bangalore as well as travel/religious destinations like Ayodhya, Kerala, Manali, Dehradun.