Renting in India should feel simple

Vishal’s connection to hospitality is personal as well as professional. His work with Airbnb’s team, where he helped resolve complex traveller cases and helps identify recurring product and policy issues based on customer feedback.

He is also an active Airbnb host and Superhost, with the Superhost status. Beyond his own hosting, Vishal helps manage multiple units on Airbnb and other booking platforms on behalf of other hosts, supporting operations across several buildings and units. That experience gives him a practical understanding of what hosts actually need: dependable bookings, clear guest communication, consistent operations, fair protection and tools that make managing properties less stressful.

This combination—platform experience, hosting experience and multi-property operations—is central to Smartkiraya’s approach. Vishal is not building a rental marketplace from theory; he is building it from the everyday realities of guests, hosts, owners and property managers.

Vishal began his career in customer-facing roles, including customer handling and sales at British Airways, where he supported global travellers and helped grow the US sales vertical. He later worked at Barclays, managing portfolios for personal and business banking customers and contributing to digital adoption initiatives.

At Cvent, he worked in the event-management software space, helping enterprise customers adopt and use the platform more effectively. These experiences strengthened his ability to listen to customers, identify friction in a product journey, and translate feedback into practical improvements.

At Smartkiraya, that mindset shapes the product: fewer hidden costs, clearer listings, simpler agreements, better host tools and a booking experience designed around real user needs.

Smartkiraya was created to address a familiar problem in India: renting and short stays are often fragmented, opaque and stressful. Renters may encounter unclear pricing, brokerage costs, outdated listings and complicated paperwork. Hosts and owners may struggle with fragmented operations, guest expectations and the work involved in managing multiple properties.

Smartkiraya brings these sides together on one platform. It offers verified PGs, flats and BnBs with zero brokerage and transparent GST-inclusive pricing, while helping hosts and property owners manage listings and bookings more efficiently.

Vishal’s vision is to make Smartkiraya a trusted layer between renters, hosts and property owners—one that supports the full journey, from discovering a home or stay to completing a rental agreement and managing the relationship that follows.

Vishal holds a Bachelor of Computer Applications from Chandigarh University and has completed a Professional Certificate Programme in Product Management at IIM Kozhikode. His work combines product thinking with operational execution: user research, market analysis, data-driven decision-making, stakeholder collaboration and customer-experience design.

He is particularly interested in how technology can reduce friction in high-trust transactions such as renting, hosting and short-term stays. For Smartkiraya, that means building not just a listing site, but a platform that helps people make confident decisions and helps hosts operate with greater clarity.