Bag2Bag: Stay Short Save Better | Indian Startup by Anurag Tiwari

Our STORY: Meet the Startup who are Asking Hotels to Rent Rooms by the Hour.

Startups own a zest to try something new and customize services as per requirement. Bag2Bag is one among them. Bag2Bag is a rising Bangalore based travel startup founded by Anurag Tiwari, Gaurav Garg, and Alok Mishra, the trio knows each other from past 10 Years. The startup emphasizes in service that allows people to book hotels room by hours and night stay. Many hotels today have a fixed slot for the room even if it is not required but when you talk about Bag2Bag they are offering a service which is definitely the need of hour looking at various segments of people that have availed the service. 

What is the idea that company works on and future objective?

If you simply say, then we are a technology-enabled hotel booking service provider, but we have innovated in this space in order to provide better customer service. So, we came up with hotel booking on an hourly basis with flexible check-in and check-out timing. Our vision is to maximize the benefits of both the hotel partners and end customers. Hotels get benefited by an increase of occupancy, which as per the recent researches is one of the biggest problems of hotel industry & end customers get benefited by saving on room rents. So, pay only for what you actually stay whether those are budget or luxurious hotels.

At this moment, we want to expand our services in all major cities of India. One of the things we have in mind to partner with Corporates because they can really get instant benefit of our services and we also wish to partner with some other type of service providers such as commute, food, lifestyle etc. to provide bundle services to our customer.

When the idea was developed and how?

The idea was essentially developed by realising our own pain when we have paid a hefty amount of money for hotel rooms while travelling for exams, interviews or even leisure. We started doing some research and spoke with friends and found it a real pain exists in this fast-changing world. Our mode of travel has become so fast that in a single day we have a meeting in Bangalore and another in Singapore, we have started renting cars and bikes instead of buying them, even our size of luggage has become so light, but we are still stuck in legacy style regular 24-hour hotel booking. This must change and in fact evolving very fast.

How the company came into existence?

Our company has started with an equal partnership of a few like-minded people. To be honest, success doesn’t come easily, and we have seen some major fallout but fortunately, we are seeing a clear ray of hope now. We have gone through a few major changes in our offerings and organizational structure, but we are happy to be in enough stable state now to look ahead.

Names of founders, their management roles, and the number of full-time paid staff?

The founding team consists of Anurag Tiwari, Gaurav Garg & Alok Mishra. Anurag is responsible for operations and business development, Gaurav leads technology and design while Alok is responsible for Marketing and future strategies of Bag2Bag. Other than the founders, there is a team of 4 full-time developers, city coordinators, and some interns.

Funding arrangements?

We have been bootstrapping so far with the initial funds from the founders. We are now actively looking for raising the first round of external investment.

How would the bag2bag concept contribute to the Society?

This is one question we like most. India is a fast developing country and of course one of the fastest growing economy. But per capita income is still very low here in India. We have a major part of the lower middle class who are continuously travelling for work, education etc. But couldn’t afford to stay in hotels because of sky rocketing prices. They ended up spending hours either on a railway station, shade or bus stops. Why can’t we offer them something which they can afford? Most of these people just need to stay for few hours. So we feel it is our duty to provide those hours of stay to our responsible citizens. If there is an infrastructure ready, then its good to use that in best possible ways. This is n best interest of society and fulfilling business as well as social needs.

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Another important aspect is security. It is not hidden that the threat is even more for senior citizens and women. So, for all these people travelling to meet their relatives, to see their kids studying in another city or to take good treatment, it is essential to ensure that they get required and affordable stay. We feel proud that we are serving to some real society needs.