Homestay: what it is, how India's schemes define one, and how to list it

• The family lives there: guests stay in the family's home, not in a building run only for guests.
• A few rooms: the national scheme and the state schemes below cap a homestay at six.
• Home food and local life: meals cooked in the house, and a host who knows the place.
• A home's rules, not a hotel's: guests may share some spaces, and know what to expect.

A bed and breakfast is close. In the Ministry of Tourism's scheme, its owner doesn't live there, but an agent or operator does, to look after guests. A guest house, in the Ministry's separate scheme, needs at least six lettable rooms and a reception.

The Ministry of Tourism classifies Incredible India Bed & Breakfast and Incredible India Homestay establishments in states and union territories that don't have a scheme of their own. Its guidelines give the aim as a clean and affordable place to stay, and a chance for guests to stay with an Indian family.

• A homestay: the owner and family live in the house and let out at least one room and at most six, with 12 beds.
• A bed and breakfast: the owner doesn't live there, but an agent or operator does, with the same one to six rooms.
• Two categories, Silver and Gold, inspected by a regional committee chaired by India Tourism's regional office.
• Run on a bed and breakfast basis: the breakfast offered must be specified, its charges displayed and guests told in advance.
• Rooms of at least 120 square feet in the plains and 100 in the hills for Silver, and 200 and 120 for Gold, each with an attached bathroom.
• A register of guests' check-in and check-out, with passport details for foreign guests.
• Classification valid for two years. Apply to renew it three months before it ends.

Where a state has its own scheme, the Ministry's doesn't apply there, and the state's rules are the ones to follow. Three examples, as Kerala's tourism department and Airbnb's summaries for hosts set them out:

• Kerala: classified as a Diamond, Gold or Silver homestay by the state's Department of Tourism, only where the owner and family live in the house; leased or rented houses aren't considered; at most six rooms; valid for three years, with the certificate on display for guests.
• Himachal Pradesh: homestays come under the Himachal Pradesh Home Stay Rules, 2025, and homes registered under the 2008 scheme must register under them too. Airbnb's summary gives at most six rooms with attached toilets, and says the owner need not live in the unit.
• Uttarakhand: Airbnb's summary names the state's homestay rules of 2015 and 2018, one to six rooms, the owner living in the house with the family, and registration with the district tourism office or the state's online portal.

The Ministry's draft national strategy for rural homestays suggests that states exempt rural homestays from licensing under the Sarais Act, 1867, and charge them domestic rates for power and water. It is a draft, not a rule. Rules, fees and portals change, so read your own state tourism department's page before you build or register.

• Booking.com sorts properties into hotels, apartments, homes and alternative places, and lists Homestay among its home types. It says a property type can't be changed after registration, so choose carefully.
• Booking.com's quality rating, its yellow squares, covers 11 kinds of home and smaller property, such as guest houses and B&Bs, and Homestay isn't one of them. It lets stars be set only for hotel-type properties.
• On MakeMyTrip and Goibibo, choose “Homestays & Villas” as the property type, then homestay as the kind of place, and whether you sell the whole property or room by room. Go-MMT asks for photos of the property and each room, ownership details, and your bank and tax details, and says GST registration isn't mandatory for homestays.
• On Agoda, a homestay can be a multi-unit home, with several rooms under one listing, or a single-unit home, with each room listed on its own.

1. 1Read your state tourism department's homestay scheme, or the Ministry's if your state has none, and check who must live there, how many rooms are allowed and the room sizes.
2. 2Register or apply for classification as the scheme asks, and keep the certificate where guests can see it if the scheme says so.
3. 3Keep a register of every guest's arrival and departure, with identity details, and passport details for foreign guests.
4. 4List on one or two booking sites as a homestay, with photos of each room, your house rules and your meals.
5. 5Give guests a way to book you directly next time: a website, or a number they can message.