About RareRoute
Why RareRoute exists.
I grew up in Goa, around my family's business — a construction company that branched into resorts and restaurants over the years. Hospitality wasn't something I studied first and discovered later. It was just what was happening around our dinner table.
I did my BBA at Symbiosis Pune (2011–14), worked briefly in finance after, and then got into a Master's program in International Tourism and Hospitality Management in London. During my Master's, I worked part-time as a mixologist and barista at one of Central London's busiest outlets — equal parts broke-student-survival and genuinely loving it. After graduating, I landed a sales role at Best Western Hotels and stuck with it for two years, before getting restless and wanting to build something of my own. So I left and moved back to Goa.
Hostels, Europe, and learning to travel differently
While in London (2014–2017), I did a bunch of budget weekend trips across Europe, always staying in hostels. That's where I properly fell for the idea of community and experience-led travel — actually exploring a place, not just checking it off. A lot of those trips I did solo, including a full solo trip to Vietnam in 2018, not long before Piggy Hostels happened.
Back to Goa, and the start of building things
Back in Goa in 2017, I worked on renovating a resort property, then spent months meeting hotel chains across India — which eventually led to signing a partnership with Royal Orchid Hotels. Around the same time, I tried building two tech platforms — one in nightlife discovery, one in vehicle rentals. Both got shut down. Not every idea is the right idea, and I'd rather say that plainly than dress it up.
Piggy Hostels
In 2018, carrying everything those hostel trips across Europe had taught me, I started Piggy Hostels with one property in Goa. Over the next three years it grew to seven hostels across India — from Varkala to Spiti Valley. Alongside it, I ran a co-living space, an independent café called Teal (with a close friend and chef as my partner), and a bar. During COVID, my sister and I also started a home-baked cookie business, Cookie Bar — inspired by Ben's Cookies, our favourite spot in London — and sold over a thousand cookies before life picked back up after COVID ended.
The shift to technology — and OneBoard
During the pandemic, I started building tech for hostel experiences with a friend. That early project became OneBoard. I sold the hostel business, the café, and the bar to focus on it full-time.
OneBoard went through several real iterations over the years that followed — experience tech for hostels, then for all accommodation providers, a concierge platform for hotels, B2B SaaS for travel operators, an activity search platform, and eventually an online booking platform for tours and activities, which it's been for the past two years — and which is still operational and profitable today. Each shift came from hitting a real limitation — market size, operational complexity — not from chasing trends. Those lessons are the actual foundation RareRoute is built on.
Why RareRoute
Across all of this — construction, logistics, hotels, hostels, cafés, cookies, booking platforms — the same pattern kept showing up: the best trips were never the ones built from the widest catalogue. They were the ones shaped by someone who'd actually been there and was willing to tell you what to skip.
RareRoute is what that pattern looks like as a company. We work with creators and local experts who've genuinely lived a destination. They guide, travellers lead, and we handle everything operational in between.
This is still early — built one destination, one creator, one traveller at a time. On purpose.
— Ryan Prazeres
Founder, RareRoute