One-and-a-half years into the pandemic, many hostels and paying-guest accommodations (as hostels are sometimes loosely called) are still shuttered in Chennai. However, with lockdown restrictions easing off, some companies consider running their offices with a small and safe percentage of their workforce every day, there is a ray of hope for the hostels. Nowhere is this ray as bright as at Rajiv Gandhi Salai, popularly known as Old Mahabalipuram Road, which has the lion’s share of PGs in Chennai, thanks to the IT industry.
A few others around Anna Nagar and Ambattur are known for supporting a population of outstation students undergoing UPSC coaching.
Those in the business point out that they have reopened some of their branches based on enquiries from former residents.
Subadharshini Hari, who runs a ladies’ hostel with branches at Perungudi and Thoraipakkam (two other branches she ran were shut down last year), says they opened the two early this month after it was closed during the second wave.
Short stay
“At one facility, we currently have 25 working women and at another, ten,” says Subadharshini of Feel at Home ladies hostel. She says a majority have booked the place for a short stay, say for a month. Subadharshin is seeing three categories of occupants: Some go to work on a daily basis, a few go twice or thrice a week and a small percentage are working from the hostel and go only when there is a requirement.
“All of my occupants are those working in smaller firms. Some have been asked to work for a short time in Chennai and be prepared to leave to their hometown if there is a third wave, which is why the average duration of the contract these outstation employees seek is one month,” she says.
Pramod Chakaravarthy, a native of Coimbatore, moved to Royal Palace Paying Guest for Men at Shanthi Colony in Anna Nagar early this year to attend in-person UPSC classes at a coaching centre nearby.
He says the working population that comes to the PG is a floating crowd. “Some of them have gig jobs and stay at these places for a couple of months. However, students preparing for civil service exams have opted for a longer stay,” he says.
Meeting operational costs
Many in this business say the number of people occupying such facilities are small in number nevertheless they are happy to throw open their premises.
This is because a majority of these players continue to pay rent to the owners of these spaces, so even if it a small number of people used the facility, it would help meet a part of the rental expense.
Green Home Ladies Hostel was running five branches on OMR during the pre-COVID days.
“We have opened two of them and they are running with 25 percent occupancy,” says G. Karthick, who owns the facilities and is a treasurer of Tamil Nadu IT Hostel and Owners Welfare Association. He says 95 p.c of the players operating on OMR are dependent on the IT crowd. “The people moving into our facilities are those working in non-IT sectors,” he says.
Apart from letting it to professionals, the facilities also has families booking the space for a short duration of one or two months.
“Some of them are working professionals who have moved out of the city and have returned to take up an important assignment; and a few are on gig assignments,” says Karthick.
Angel Hostels for Working Women have also started getting enquiries. Its Thoraipakkam outlet saw 10 people moving in recently and its Navalur branch is set to reopen in a couple of weeks.
“Running a centre with 10 or 20 p.c occupancy may not sound great, but that is something to start with.
Only with the pandemic receding and a large number of companies adopting a hybrid work model can be expect good business. Recently, an MNC said they planned to call 25 p.c. of their employees to office by September; if so many of us will get to resume our businesses,” says G. Jaganathan, president of South Chennai Hostel and PG Owners Association.