StayCraft for Paying guest houses & hostels

StayCraft for paying guest houses is for PGs and hostels that let a bed by the month to students and working people. The owner gets their own website showing the rent, the deposit and the beds free today, an admin that keeps track of residents, rent and deposits, and pings on their phone when someone asks for a bed. It is made for a business that sells a bed by the month, not a night, so the site never asks a visitor for dates.

What every site gets

These are on every plan, including the cheapest.

• A listing on the StayCraft Experiences directory (staycraft.co.in/experiences), which links to your own site, once your plan is active.
• Your own website at yourname.staycraft.co.in, in the Lodge design, made for paying guest houses. The site moves a little: the first screen opens with a slow push-in, and headings and photos rise as a visitor scrolls. Still for anyone whose phone is set to reduce motion.
• Rooms as sharing options: single, double, triple or four sharing, with the rent per bed per month and the deposit.
• Beds free today, counted from your own list of residents and shown on your site.
• "Ask for a bed" form: the visitor gives the sharing they want and the month they move in. Each request lands in your Enquiries and your email.
• Enquiry follow-up: every enquiry moves through New, Replied, Quoted, Won or Lost, with a day to follow up on, a "Follow up today" tab, and one morning ping on your phone when something is due. On every plan.
• Residents: move someone in, give notice, and move them out with the deposit settled.
• Rent ledger: a rent invoice each month on the billing day, payments recorded, receipts printed, and reminders to you.
• Guest register and Form C for every resident, including foreign nationals.
• A WhatsApp button on every page, plus photo gallery, nearby places and reviews.
• Blog and SEO & Google tools, with a health score and a checklist.
• Review cards and QR landing pages to print and put up.
• Social posts: turn a room, a review, an offer, a nearby place or a festival into a finished picture and caption in your own colours and fonts (a post, a story or a square), in English or Hindi, and share it to your WhatsApp status from your phone. On every plan; nothing is posted for you.
• Visitors page: traffic, top pages and where your bed requests came from.
• Monthly report by email: on the 1st, last month's visits, enquiries and (where your plan has them) bookings, payments, QR scans, reviews and top Google searches, against the month before, with one tip and your SEO score. A "Last month" card on the dashboard shows the same. You can switch it off in Settings or with one click from the email.
• Backup & Restore: download your whole site as a zip at any time.
• Phone notifications for new bed requests and rent reminders.
• At least one staff login for a warden (Website 1, Basic 3, Growth 5, Pro 10; the owners are not counted).

Your website, rooms, enquiries, blog, SEO and guest register never switch off, whatever happens with billing.

Plans and prices

A paying guest house buys from the same six plans as a homestay. Prices are per year.

Plan	Price per year	Who it suits	What it adds over the plan below
Website	₹9,000 (₹750 a month, billed yearly)	A PG that wants its rooms found and its rent kept in order	The Lodge website, rooms with monthly rent and deposit, beds free today, the Ask for a bed form, residents, rent ledger and deposits, guest register and Form C, WhatsApp button. No staff logins, 1 management user (you). Three designs made for your kind, 1 design change a year. 1 GB.
Basic	₹12,000 (₹1,000 a month, billed yearly)	A PG with a warden and a bigger house	Your own colours on the site, room bills for charges beyond the rent, and the bed board. 3 staff logins, 2 management users. Every standard design, 2 design changes a year. 2 GB.
Growth	₹15,000 (₹1,250 a month, billed yearly)	A PG that serves food	A food menu with QR ordering for residents, a Kitchen login, and Search insights from Google. 5 staff logins, 2 management users, 2 design changes a year. 3 GB.
Plus	₹18,000 (₹1,500 a month, billed yearly)	A PG with residents from abroad, or its own domain	Your site in 8 languages and your own domain. 8 staff logins, 2 management users, 3 design changes a year. 5 GB.
Team	₹25,000 (₹2,083 a month, billed yearly)	A PG group run by a team of managers	10 staff logins, 3 management users, 4 design changes a year. 10 GB.
Pro	₹30,000 (₹2,500 a month, billed yearly)	A large PG or hostel group	Alerts on your phone for every new enquiry and request. The premium designs, and change your design any time. 20 staff logins, 5 management users. 25 GB.

How pricing works

• Prices are per year, in rupees. Plan prices are what you pay: StayCraft is not GST-registered, so no GST is added.
• There is no free trial and no card up front. We agree the plan and the price with the owner first, then switch it on the day they pay.
• The owner pays by UPI or bank transfer and uploads the screenshot in their Billing screen.
• They can change plan later, in either direction. Nothing is ever charged to a card automatically.
• Add-ons: a feature from a higher plan (for example your own domain) can be added to a lower plan. The price is agreed per property: ask us.

Features in detail

Website & design

• The Lodge design: terracotta and slate, with the rent from, the deposit and the beds free today at the top, the rooms as sharing options with what is included, your house rules, and the Ask for a bed form.
• Your PG's details: who stays (for example girls only), meals, gate hours and the notice period, printed beside the rent.
• Website editor: drag sections into order, hide the ones you do not need, change headings, text and photos, with a live preview.
• Video in the first screen: paste a YouTube, Vimeo or Dailymotion link and the site shows a "Watch the video" button.
• Your own colours that reach the whole page and stay readable. (Basic and above)
• Good to know: your FAQ and house rules on the site.
• Photos are cleaned on upload: the phone's location is removed and sideways photos are turned upright.
• No nightly booking anywhere on the site. A visitor who follows an old booking link is sent to the Ask for a bed form.

Residents & rent

• Monthly rent per room: the sharing, the rent per bed per month and the deposit. No nightly price is needed.
• Move someone in: pick the room and a free bed, the rent and deposit (filled in from the room), the move-in date, the day of the month rent is due, and the person. Their guest register entry is written for you.
• Give notice: set the leaving date from the notice period.
• Move out: enter any deductions (unpaid rent, damage) and StayCraft tells you how much of the deposit to hand back. The bed frees and the register entry closes.
• Rent ledger: each month's rent invoice appears on the billing day. Record a payment by UPI, cash or bank transfer, print a receipt, or waive a month.
• Rent reminders to you: an email and a phone ping three days before rent is due, on the day, and every week it stays unpaid.
• Bed requests: every Ask for a bed request is in Enquiries, with the sharing, the move-in month and the address if the person gave it.
• Bed board to see every bed and who is in it. (Basic and above, for rooms sold by the bed)
• Room bills for charges beyond the rent, such as laundry or meals, with payments in cash, UPI or card. (Basic and above)

Register & Form C

• Guest register: every resident is in it, with the ID type and only the last four digits of the ID. StayCraft never stores the full ID number or a photo of it.
• Download the register for any period as a spreadsheet, to print or email.
• Form C for foreign residents: the official form filled in, ready to print or save as PDF, and a sheet laid out like the FRRO website. A 24-hour clock shows what is due, with an email and phone reminder before the deadline.
• Remove a person's details on request, while keeping the register, Form C and bills the law requires.

Menu & food

• Food menu with sections such as breakfast, lunch and dinner, FSSAI veg and non-veg marks, and an All | Veg | Non-veg switch. (Growth and Pro)
• QR ordering: residents order from a code in their room, and nothing is charged until you accept the order onto their bill. (Growth and Pro)

Staff & roles

• Warden: residents, notice to leave, bed requests, the bed board and the guest register. A warden never sees the rent, the deposits or your takings. Moving someone in and moving someone out are the owner's.
• Kitchen: food orders to make and the ticket to print, with no prices. (Growth and Pro)
• A second owner can be invited and is not counted against the limit.
• Staff logins per plan: Website 1, Basic 3, Growth 5, Pro 10. Switch a login off when someone leaves and nothing they did is lost.

Marketing & Google

• SEO health score with a checklist that links to the screen where each item is done.
• Local details and map: your coordinates drive the "Find us" map.
• How to reach (air, train, bus, road) and area pages that help you rank in local searches.
• Ask for Google reviews: save your Google Place ID once and get a printable code, the link, and a ready WhatsApp message.
• Review cards and QR landing pages: print a card with a QR code, or one code that opens a page of buttons you can change any time.
• Search insights: what people typed into Google to find you, clicks and position. (Growth and Pro)

Phone app & notifications

• Pings on your phone for a new bed request, rent reminders and Form C reminders. Tap one and that record opens.
• Works on Android phones and on computers through the browser. On iPhone it works through Safari with a StayCraft icon added to the home screen.
• A warden's phone rings for new bed requests only, never for rent.
• A StayCraft app for Android is being tested and is not yet available to everyone.

Languages & your own domain

• Your site in 8 languages: English, Hindi, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Russian and Hebrew, with a one-tap switch. (Pro, or as an add-on)
• Your own domain, with HTTPS set up for you. (Pro, or as an add-on)

Security & backups

• Backup of your site and your records as a zip. Payment keys are never in it.
• Restore puts your site back and never overwrites records taken since.
• Sign-in email changes are confirmed by a link sent to the new address.
• Site visibility: take your site offline yourself and put it back when ready.

What it does not do (yet)

• It does not collect rent online. Residents pay you as they do now (UPI, cash or transfer) and you record the payment.
• Rent reminders go to the owner, not the resident. StayCraft does not message residents about rent.
• No late fees, electricity or meter billing. A month's rent is one amount; other charges go on a room bill (Basic and above).
• No rent agreement document. StayCraft keeps the move-in details but does not print a rental agreement.
• No nightly bookings and no OTA calendar sync. A paying guest house sells beds by the month only.
• One design. Lodge is the only design for paying guest houses today.
• No free trial.
• The Android app is not public yet. Phone pings work through the browser today.

Good to say to a customer

• "Do I need a developer?" No. You add your rooms with their rent and deposit, upload photos, and your site goes live. Everything is changed from your own admin.
• "Will it remind me who has not paid?" Yes. A rent invoice is made for each resident on their billing day, and you get an email and a phone ping before the due date, on the day, and every week it stays unpaid.
• "Can my warden use it without seeing the money?" Yes. A warden login sees residents, bed requests, the bed board and the register, and never the rent or the deposits.
• "What about police verification and foreign residents?" Every resident goes into a digital guest register, and Form C for a foreign national is filled in for you, with a reminder before the 24-hour deadline.
• "Is there an app?" The admin works on any phone, and you get pings on your phone. An Android app is in testing and not yet available to everyone.