Start-up Spotlight: Guestara Simplifies Guest Management for the Modern Hotel Stack
In January 2025, Guestara announced it had raised $500,000 from a group of experienced travel and hospitality technology entrepreneurs, led by industry veteran Sanjay Ghare. The funding will support the startup’s efforts to develop an AI-enabled guest management platform that centralizes and automates key hospitality functions.
According to CEO Akshay Dekate—who has spent more than a decade in hospitality innovation—Guestara stands out in the hotel technology space by unifying the entire guest journey, delivering hyper-personalized experiences, boosting revenue, and enabling hoteliers to focus on what matters most: creating memorable stays.
Guestara integrates artificial intelligence to streamline operations and improve guest interactions. Features such as a unified inbox, contactless check-in, omnichannel engagement, personalized upselling and smart checkout work with existing property management systems and hotel software. An open API allows third-party developers to tailor the platform to meet specific needs. The system uses multiple AI models to automate tasks and generate real-time insights, helping hotel operators reduce manual workloads and identify new revenue opportunities.
“Guestara’s modular and open architecture is a game-changer, allowing hoteliers to build a customized tech stack while enabling third-party developers to enhance the platform further,” Dekate said. “This flexibility ensures our solution evolves with industry needs.”
Founded by Dekate (CEO), Neelaksh Gupta (CTO), Rajat Maheshwari (CPO) and Kajal Makhija (CMO), the idea for Guestara emerged from firsthand travel experiences and conversations with short-term rental operators.
“After staying in multiple properties and speaking with operators, we noticed recurring pain points: disconnected systems, operational inefficiencies and untapped upselling opportunities,” Dekate said. “We saw a clear need for a unified, AI-powered platform to streamline operations, automate workflows and elevate guest engagement across the board.”
Since its founding in June 2024, the company has launched its platform and onboarded more than 2,000 rooms and short-term rentals—including three global hotel chains—while building a pipeline of more than 24,000 additional properties.
Its clients have reported strong early results, including upsell revenue growth of 200%, a 40% improvement in front desk efficiency and a 300% increase in positive guest reviews.
“These results underscore Guestara’s impact on both operational efficiency and guest satisfaction,” Dekate said. “They’re also a testament to our team’s hard work and the demand for innovative solutions in the hospitality industry.”
Looking ahead, Guestara plans to expand its product to include a full property management system, channel manager, payment processing, booking engine and CRM. The company’s long-term goal is to onboard 2 million rooms globally and help transform the hospitality sector into a data-driven, guest-centric industry.