as an undergraduate student at delhi university amanpreet bajaj got his first taste of entrepreneurship when he started a website for young people he went on to do an mba and work at ernst and young before cofounding letsbuycom an online marketplace for computers and consumer electronics in 2010 in 2012 flipkart acquired his startup and bajaj found himself afloat for a while hed always loved to travel and after a few years as an investor and mentor to various startups he joined airbnb as its india country manager in 2015 bajaj 37 tells toi that listings on the site in india have grown 115 in a year and how indians are looking for unique experiences on the roadwhats the typical profile of a host and of a guest in indiathe host community is diverse young couples elders or empty nesters whose children are abroad single mothers theyre all hosting travellers and using the money earned to pay off mortgages or sponsor hobbies airbnb is creating hostpreneurs who work as fulltime hosts and dont rely on jobs to pay their bills we are also seeing the emergence of home management companies that turn a property into a homestay and individuals managing multiple rental homes there are hosts in almost 100 cities in india and we have more than 36000 listings goa alone has around 6000 listings indians usually travel as a group be it friends or family they prefer villas as they can spend time togetherhow do you deal with competition from hotel aggregators which offer low ratestravel is a vast industry and multiple formats can coexist the growth rate is encouraging for everyone occupancy in hotels too is at an alltime high our idea is to provide unique experiences tourism has been commodified our aim is to push it to broader areas this will benefit not just the host but also the neighbourhood and local artisans our research suggests that people stay longer at our accommodations as compared to traditional hospitality options people in remote areas are earning amounts they otherwise would not we are here to create a homesharing ecosystem in and beyond hotspotswhere does india stand as a market among the 191 countries airbnb is present inindia is one of the fastest growing markets for airbnb and is expected to become one of the top three markets to drive the next level of growth our ceo brian chesky has said in the past that by 2028 we want one billion people to have travelled on airbnb and india will be critical for us to achieve that missionwhat is the biggest challenge youve faced in india were people wary of opening up their homesthe travel industry is constantly evolving rising personal incomes a growing economy affordable air travel and deeper internet penetration are leading to the emergence of a more avid prudent and adventurous indian traveller it is important for us to be constantly on our toes and meet their needs realtime since we launched in india we