PLANET WHY-- A Guest House with a Difference
Planet Why Guest House will offer travellers a chance to enjoy authentic Indian hospitality and culture in a clean, well-run, reasonably priced place, furnished using local materials. Because the site is near the Delhi green belt, but close to the Metro, the proposed motorway, and the airport, guests can mix quiet rural days with the bustle of central Delhi. While it would be a good base for a complete one to two week holiday, or for a longer period for those seeking time to relax and immerse themselves in India, it would also be ideal for travellers looking for somewhere to start and/or end their wider travels in India because of its closeness to major roads and the airport.
Reason for Planet Why:
Planet why is the logical outcome of Project Why and answers a whole new set of whys that came our way during our seven years on the field.
Planet Why, will be a social business, generating income to support itself and enable Project Why’s mission to continue into the long term.
We know from our research that social businesses can work in hospitality. One of the strongest examples is the Ninos Hotel in Cusco (www.ninoshotel.com) where profits from the guesthouse support child aid projects.
In addition, as well as the growing trend for visitors to want to support ‘local’ or ‘authentic’ places (sustainable or fair-trade tourism), more people are asking to stay in environmentally sensitive, low carbon accommodation (green or ecotourism) and an increasing number want to combine some volunteering with their holiday (voluntourism). Planet Why will be able to cater for all these currently niche but potentially large segments of tourism.
Another reason we have chosen hospitality is that it offers a wide range of unskilled and semi-skilled jobs, enabling people with disabilities and those who have had little education or training, to be able to work in the sector, with proper support. Tourism and hospitality, through the multiplier effect, can also help regenerate an area.
Planet Why will also have, on site, a residential home where adults with disabilities, vulnerable women and their children, will be able to live and be cared for in a sheltered environment, while gaining marketable skills, a sense of their own self-worth, and as much independence as each is capable of.
Because Planet Why will be part of the local community, with some of its workers also drawn from the area around, it will benefit from the crèche, primary and secondary schools we offer, as well as from the income and jobs generated by the steady flow of foreign tourists. We intend to involve local people in the cultural side (such as dancing, cooking, yoga and art lessons) and in the practical (because we will need auto rickshaws and drivers, fresh fruit and vegetables, milk, bread, laundry, etc.). While our aim will be, over time, to provide many of these services ourselves, we will always seek to source and staff locally what we cannot ourselves offer.
Just as no commercial business can start without capital investment, and very few commercial businesses make a profit immediately, Planet Why similarly needs initial investment and support during its development phase. Because business investors normally expect returns that a social business cannot achieve, we have to look to non-traditional sources for the start-up backing we need.
