Should you do daily rentals at your place in Goa?

Goa has been a tourist favourite for years, but the trend of daily rentals offered at apartments and villas, managed by 3rd party specialised managers, who are often times managing 15-20 units at a time, where the homeowner is purely an investor, and has no connection to his home or to the people renting his place, is a trend that only started here since 2020, ie post covid.

While Airbnb was based on a good idea, of a local host renting out a spare room and providing his guest a peek into his local life, in exchange for some daily rental, its culmination in creating the daily rental market as we see it today in Goa, or generally in all tourist destinations across India, is probably the worst application of the original noble idea.

The daily rental market, is soulless, service-less, with no respect for the incoming guest, who mostly isn’t even offered a welcome drink, some milk, and bread if arriving late, while the actual homeowner is completely absent so no experience sharing and local life peek is offered by him. In fact in most cases, the manager is somewhere outside Goa, managing property remotely, and bragging about the income he makes that he knows deep down he hardly deserves for the service he provides, the homeowner similarly is an investor, not present in Goa, who wanted to ride the wave and buy a place in goa just for rental yield.

Developers, and brokers are forced to pitch higher prices to buyers driven by these rental yields before anything else, driven the investor buyers, treating the property as just a material soulless asset, destroying the beauty of the market which ideally should be either a unique home-stay offering, or better an end-user offering, to preserve the beauty that is Goa, and have more sustainable growth here.

When a property becomes a pure business asset, the "soul" of hospitality often disappears, replaced by a revolving door of guests who have no connection to the local village or its peace. Unless you are physically present to ensure the essence of your home is preserved, you are simply destroying your homecity, in the process of allowing daily rentals. Over time, the yields will keep lowering, as the very practise of so many managed rented homes, will drive tourism lower, not necessarily in numbers, but in quality.

People argue tourists are increasing each year to Goa, but the devil lies not in numbers, but in quality of the tourists. Goa needs educated, sustainability focused tourists, who care for it`s beauty. those who understand how to preserve beaches, how to dump garbage, and ensure their future generations can also enjoy Goa.

So, if you are not necessarily needy for money, take that bold step of switching from daily, to long term rental, maybe its less income, but it’ll be a more soulful home, and in the long run preserve Goa. Just a thought.