Comparison
Aira Nexus Stay vs Zapstel — an honest comparison.
Zapstel is an established PG & hostel manager with a broad operations feature set. Stay is newer and built around one idea: stop rent leaking. Here's where each one wins, written by us but fair. If Zapstel is the right pick for you, we say so below.
Zapstel vs Aira Nexus Stay, side by side
| Dimension | Aira Nexus Stay | Zapstel |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | One flat price for the whole hostel — not per bed. ₹499/mo up to 75 beds, ₹999 up to 200, ₹1,499 up to 500 (~20% less on annual), plus ₹5/month for each bed above your pack; 501+ we quote. All + 18% GST. Every feature we ship is included — no tiers, no add-ons. WhatsApp is a separate wallet line at a flat ₹0.20 per message. | Priced per bed, with a lower per-bed rate the longer you prepay. We don't restate their rates — take today's numbers off their site. |
| What your bill does as you grow | Mostly stands still. Inside a pack, adding beds costs nothing. Above it, ₹5 a bed — until the next pack is cheaper, at which point you move up automatically. Removing beds drops the next monthly bill again. | A per-bed price moves with every bed you add or empty — so the bill is a calculation each month rather than a number you already know. |
| Maturity & scale | New (2026), founder-run and early. Small, and close to the customer. | Established, with several years in market. |
| What it optimises for | One number on screen one: how much rent is leaking this month. Recovery-first. | All-in-one PG operations — onboarding, occupancy, billing, maintenance in one dashboard. |
| Messaging channel | WhatsApp-first: reminders + receipts from our verified Meta WABA, branded with your PG name, a flat ₹0.20/msg all-in, nothing bundled. | Automated reminders + digital receipts — confirm the exact channel (SMS / email / WhatsApp) for your setup. |
| Free trial | 14 days, every feature, ₹50 wallet credit, no card, self-serve. | Demo-led — ask them whether a trial is available. |
| Support | Founder-led — you can message the founders — plus in-app support tickets you raise and track to resolution. | A support team, with priority / account-manager options on higher plans. Ask what yours includes. |
| Maintenance / complaints | Yes — tenant maintenance tickets with an open → resolved lifecycle. | Yes — maintenance ticket system. |
| Tenant ID / KYC | Basic KYC document upload. Aadhaar e-KYC is deliberately out of scope — weeks of compliance, recovers no rent. | Markets automated tenant onboarding with ID verification. Ask which method it uses. |
| Online rent collection | Record cash / UPI / bank + instant WhatsApp receipt (public printable receipt link) today; tenant pay-links on the roadmap. | Integrated payment gateways for rent collection. |
| Digital receipts | Auto WhatsApp receipt on every payment + a public, printable receipt page the tenant can save — no tenant login. | Digital receipt generation. |
Pricing model
- Aira Nexus Stay
- One flat price for the whole hostel — not per bed. ₹499/mo up to 75 beds, ₹999 up to 200, ₹1,499 up to 500 (~20% less on annual), plus ₹5/month for each bed above your pack; 501+ we quote. All + 18% GST. Every feature we ship is included — no tiers, no add-ons. WhatsApp is a separate wallet line at a flat ₹0.20 per message.
- Zapstel
- Priced per bed, with a lower per-bed rate the longer you prepay. We don't restate their rates — take today's numbers off their site.
What your bill does as you grow
- Aira Nexus Stay
- Mostly stands still. Inside a pack, adding beds costs nothing. Above it, ₹5 a bed — until the next pack is cheaper, at which point you move up automatically. Removing beds drops the next monthly bill again.
- Zapstel
- A per-bed price moves with every bed you add or empty — so the bill is a calculation each month rather than a number you already know.
Maturity & scale
- Aira Nexus Stay
- New (2026), founder-run and early. Small, and close to the customer.
- Zapstel
- Established, with several years in market.
What it optimises for
- Aira Nexus Stay
- One number on screen one: how much rent is leaking this month. Recovery-first.
- Zapstel
- All-in-one PG operations — onboarding, occupancy, billing, maintenance in one dashboard.
Messaging channel
- Aira Nexus Stay
- WhatsApp-first: reminders + receipts from our verified Meta WABA, branded with your PG name, a flat ₹0.20/msg all-in, nothing bundled.
- Zapstel
- Automated reminders + digital receipts — confirm the exact channel (SMS / email / WhatsApp) for your setup.
Free trial
- Aira Nexus Stay
- 14 days, every feature, ₹50 wallet credit, no card, self-serve.
- Zapstel
- Demo-led — ask them whether a trial is available.
Support
- Aira Nexus Stay
- Founder-led — you can message the founders — plus in-app support tickets you raise and track to resolution.
- Zapstel
- A support team, with priority / account-manager options on higher plans. Ask what yours includes.
Maintenance / complaints
- Aira Nexus Stay
- Yes — tenant maintenance tickets with an open → resolved lifecycle.
- Zapstel
- Yes — maintenance ticket system.
Tenant ID / KYC
- Aira Nexus Stay
- Basic KYC document upload. Aadhaar e-KYC is deliberately out of scope — weeks of compliance, recovers no rent.
- Zapstel
- Markets automated tenant onboarding with ID verification. Ask which method it uses.
Online rent collection
- Aira Nexus Stay
- Record cash / UPI / bank + instant WhatsApp receipt (public printable receipt link) today; tenant pay-links on the roadmap.
- Zapstel
- Integrated payment gateways for rent collection.
Digital receipts
- Aira Nexus Stay
- Auto WhatsApp receipt on every payment + a public, printable receipt page the tenant can save — no tenant login.
- Zapstel
- Digital receipt generation.
Written by us. We describe how each product is priced and positioned — not what it costs. Vendors change their prices and we won't guess at someone else's, so check their current pricing page before you decide. Ours is published in full. Last reviewed 24 July 2026.
Pick Zapstel if…
- You want an established platform with years in the market behind it, and being someone's early customer isn't a risk you want to take.
- You want a broad all-in-one operations stack today rather than a narrower, recovery-first tool.
- You run one small property and the lowest monthly fee is what decides it. A per-bed rate — especially prepaid for a full year — can total less than our flat pack at small bed counts. Divide our pack price by their per-bed rate and you get the exact bed count where the two cross.
Pick Aira Nexus Stay if…
- Your No. 1 problem is rent leakage — you want one number showing how much rent is at risk this month.
- You want a flat, predictable price for the whole hostel (from ₹499/mo + GST, not per bed), so the bill doesn't re-calculate every time a tenant moves.
- You want WhatsApp-native reminders + receipts from a verified business number, and to self-serve a 14-day trial — no card, no demo call.
- You'd rather message the founders and raise trackable in-app tickets than route through a support tier.
Where we agree
- PG owners should stop chasing rent on spreadsheets.
- A bed-level ledger + digital receipts beat manual tracking.
- Automated reminders materially cut late rent.
- Owners run their PG from their phone — mobile-first is non-negotiable.
FAQ
Common questions about switching.
The two are different shapes, so the answer depends on your size. They price per bed; we price the whole hostel flat — ₹499/mo up to 75 beds, ₹999 up to 200, ₹1,499 up to 500, ₹5/month per bed above a pack, ~20% off on annual, plus 18% GST. We won't restate their rates here. Take today's per-bed number off their site and divide our pack price by it: that is the bed count where the two models cross. Below it a per-bed rate costs less; above it the flat pack does, and the gap widens with every bed. Compare like with like on term, too — prepaying a year lowers a per-bed rate as well, so weigh their annual against our ₹399 / ₹799 / ₹1,199.
Try us for 14 days. Decide on real data.
Every feature we ship, ₹50 wallet credit, no card, no call. If Zapstel is the better fit, we'll tell you.