With the ever-increasing tourists coming to Rajasthan city of Jaipur, also known as the Pink City, 40 private residences have turned into mini-hospitality centres offering graded boarding and lodging facilities on the lines of the star hotels in the city, inspired by 11 homestays running in Jungpura and Defence Colony in Delhi.

Promoted by the Hotel Clarks-Amer, the Jaipur Pride, with its 51-odd properties, is the first branded, standardised homestay in the country.

The entire city is chipping in. Bureaucrats, doctors, the local royalty, professionals, activists, artists and socialites have gathered to give the tourists a feel of homely Rajasthan by making them comfortable in their guest-rooms and on the dining table.

The facilities are standardised, set to guidelines laid down by the Clarks and the rooms and menu are graded into ‘A’ or the base rooms, ‘B’ or the standard rooms and ‘C’ the luxury rooms according to their prices.

“The idea is to sell India through its people and create more affordable tourism infrastructure with additional inventories in an age when hotel tariffs are so steep. Each home has been carefully profiled and evaluated to ensure maximum comfort,” says Apurv Kumar, executive director, Clarks-Amer, the man behind the project.