VMPL
New Delhi [India], October 19: Qwiksta began with a simple observation: hotel rooms were often being used for only a few hours, yet customers were still paying for an entire day. At the same time, the budget hoteliers Siddhant Dhangar was working with were looking for a more transparent way to work with online booking platforms. The two gaps eventually came together to form the foundation of Qwiksta, a hospitality platform bringing hourly bookings and themed stays together.
Hospitality, however, was not something Dhangar had planned to enter. A problem-solver by nature since his college days, he joined a hospitality startup after his MBA, following a professor's advice to gain experience in a startup environment if he did not yet have a business idea of his own. It was through conversations with hoteliers and customers on the ground that he began identifying an opportunity.
“I always had the mindset of looking at a problem and thinking about solutions. I didn't come from a business family and I didn't have a particular business idea when I started out. It was only after working in a hospitality startup and speaking to hoteliers and customers that I started seeing an opportunity,” said Siddhant Dhangar, Founder at Qwiksta.
Working with budget hotels in Mumbai exposed Dhangar to two problems that rarely appeared together in the same conversation. Hotel owners were frustrated with the economics and transparency of online booking platforms, while customers often wanted a room for only a few hours but had few options beyond paying for a full day's stay. That' s why Qwiksta was built to address both sides, bringing hotels onto a new platform, while allowing customers to book rooms specifically for the number of hours they actually needed.
For Dhangar, the opportunity was not simply to sell hotel rooms by the hour. It was to create a platform that gave customers more flexibility while giving independent hotels another channel to reach them.
Qwiksta is designed around flexible stays and pricing, along with features such as flexible booking hours, last-minute cancellation and payment at the hotel. The proposition was intended for a broad set of users from travellers and corporate professionals to people working from home, influencers and those needing a room for only a few hours between travel plans.
But Qwiksta's evolution went beyond the hourly-stay model. Dhangar felt existing platforms were largely focused on transactions and lacked a brand language that younger consumers could connect with. Qwiksta therefore adopted a more unconventional marketing approach, targeting an audience largely between 18 and 35 while building a distinct identity around the way people experienced its spaces.
The shift towards themed apartments came from an unexpected experiment. During an overnight office change, Qwiksta's small team moved into a 1 BHK apartment, using the hall as its office. With the bedroom left unused, the team decided to make it presentable and list it on Qwiksta, hoping the bookings could help cover the office rent.
The experiment performed better than expected. The apartment began receiving stronger bookings than the hotels on the platform, encouraging the team to explore serviced apartments as a new vertical. Qwiksta combined the aesthetic appeal of apartment-style spaces with the flexibility of its existing hotel proposition, including hourly bookings, flexible hours and last-minute cancellation.
That trial eventually led to Qwiksta's themed spaces, with early concepts including an all-black-themed apartment and a room with mirrors all around as well as other very interesting ones. The response gave the team confidence that consumers were willing to spend on spaces that offered something beyond a conventional hotel room; comfort, aesthetics and a different experience.
For Dhangar, the journey has also reinforced the importance of being willing to change direction. Qwiksta began primarily as a hotel aggregator before its apartment vertical emerged as a key differentiator. “We started Qwiksta as a hotel-aggregation platform, and the themed apartments changed our thinking. Now, we are able to manage not only how rooms are booked, but also what the rooms look and feel like.”
Today, Qwiksta has more than 200 hotels on its platform, alongside 35 themed apartments currently in operation. The apartment portfolio is set to expand further, with ten additional apartments scheduled to go live in the next few months. While its themed-apartment offering is currently concentrated in Mumbai, the company is looking to expand its apartment model into other metro cities, including Delhi, Pune and Bengaluru. It is also exploring future formats such as holiday homes and villas.
The next challenge may therefore be less about convincing customers to book rooms by the hour than convincing a much wider set of customers that Qwiksta is useful to them. Dhangar wants the next phase of the business to bring in business travellers, stranded passengers, groups of friends and others who need a room without necessarily needing a full night's stay.
For Dhangar, the long-term ambition is to build Qwiksta into a name consumers instinctively consider when looking for a room; first across India and eventually beyond it.
About Qwiksta
Qwiksta is a hospitality platform offering flexible hotel and serviced-apartment stays, with a focus on hourly bookings, flexible durations and themed spaces. Its hotel network extends across India, while its themed-apartment offering is currently present in Mumbai. Founded by Siddhant Dhangar, Qwiksta aims to make short stays more flexible and experience-led.
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