BENGALURU : This year will mark Adeep Pai’s first Christmas in the city. The VP of operations at Homigo, a firm that provides co-living spaces, usually travels to Mangaluru for the festival. But this time, he chose to do something different: He rented festive decor for his office so as to not deal with maintenance. “I didn’t want the headache of storing and maintaining these items.
Also, I do not have a big team at work to get them to decorate the tree and office. I placed the order two days ago and I plan to keep the items till January 2 or 3. They will also clean the decor, so I do not have to worry about anything,” he said.
Pai is one of the many in the city who are now renting out decor to set up at their homes and offices. According to online renting platform Rentsher, the number of people renting out decor has doubled this year, as compared to 2017.
They have received over 300 orders from Bengaluru alone for Christmas and New Year party decor and foresee to receive more than 500 orders by the end of this month, with 100 orders from corporates. High demand has led renting companies to arrange for more Christmas trees and decor items. Besides being hassle-free, the move also helps city dwellers be more eco-friendly.
Harsh Dhand, CEO and founder of the company, said, “The city celebrates every festival from Ganesh Chaturthi and Durga Pujo to Halloween and Christmas. Many opt to rent decor as it is a hassle-free option. People do not have to worry about setup, storage or disposing the items.” The startup charges around `3,000 to set up Christmas decor. “There are many vendors who can help customers set up decor in their homes or offices but the customers then have to look find ways to dispose the items after the celebration. Often, these items end up in the bin. We, on the other hand, help customers clean up,” he added.
The company has a warehouse where they store items to reuse them next year. “We have a six feet and a 10 feet tree. One can log into our website and place an order according to their preferences. We would start the clearing drive next year since some prefer to keep the decor till January 5,” he explained.
Twenty per cent of the orders received by them come from individuals whereas 40 per cent comes from communities or apartments. Their biggest order, however, came from Manyata Tech Park, where the decor cost close to `50,000. “The orders are from areas such as Marathahalli, HSR Layout, Indiranagar and Koramangala,” Dhand said.