1

Research on a recent issue: impact of paying guest accommodation on student’s life

Workshop on Business Research Project

Submitted to the fulfillment of the requirement of the degree

Of

Masters of Commerce (Hons.), Semester 1 of Academic Year 2023-2024

At

University Business School, Panjab University, Chandigarh

Submitted to: Submitted by:

Dr. (Mrs.) Anupam Bawa Sanskriti

Professor Simran

University Business School Vinayaka Sharma

Panjab Unu]iversity, Chandigarh 18th September, 2023

 2

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CONTENTS PAGE NO.

1.Introduction

2. Problem Statement

3. Research problem

4. Need and significance of this research and contribution

5. Theory used in this research

6. Literature Review and hypothesis

7. Interviews conducted

8. References
 3

Introduction:

A home away from home. Paying guest refers when a person stays in someone else’s
house property and pays rent for the accommodation and facilities available with it,
such as electricity, water, housekeeping and food at times. The concept of PG is
generally famous in the areas closer to business centers or educational institutions because
working professionals and students prefer these locations to reduce their travel time and
save some money. Students from different states or countries usually shift themselves for
their jobs and studies. This migration occurs on a regular basis. This has opened the door to
earning money. In India, we may find PG accommodation in various configurations. The
paying guest accommodation could be single or on a sharing basis. In the latter case, usually,
two or sometimes more people share a single room. Typically, a paying guest consists of a
food mess, in which meals, such as breakfast, lunch and dinner are served. PG collects rent
monthly, in advance at the beginning of the month. To avoid everything from food to
furniture, laundry, to grocery shopping on their own, people choose PG rooms. PG charges
depend on the available facilities. It is for one to decide whether they want a single, double
or triple sharing room and whether the PG stay includes food and housekeeping facilities.
Nowadays, people who have vacant rooms or floors in their apartments are providing the
rooms to the students. It has become such a popular source of income that people have
started investing in the property so that they can open a paying guest accommodation. It
also helps in generating employment as they employ a few people to do their daily work like
cooking, cleaning, fetching, groceries etc. Despite all the facilities provided in the paying
guest accommodation, students still face problems related to a sense of security, food, and
the behavior of the owners. To earn money, owners divide the room, which becomes
constrained.

Paying guests houses is preferred more by the students because there is a homely
environment. Another reason would be that those who want their parents or friends to visit
them don’t bother about it, as they are all given private rooms.

Some landlords run the PG business full time, utilizing their entire bungalow, while others
convert their two or more vacant rooms into PG rooms to earn some extra income. The PG
owner employs a few people to run daily errands, such as fetching, groceries, vegetables,
cooking, driving etc.

Ensuring a safe and secure environment, Indian parents are known for their extra
possessiveness for their children. If the child is a girl, their anxieties reach another level.
They always want to make sure that their child is safe and secure. The atmosphere in PG
provides a level of satisfaction to the parents as it is well equipped with CCTV cameras,
watchmen and security guards. Some PGs even make sure the person living follows proper
 4

guidelines to ensure safety. In an emergency the PG also has access to doctors and first aid
kits. Also living far from home is not easy for some people. Homesickness and loneliness

surround them.

70% 65% 60% 40 % 35%

The above pie chart shows us the percentage of rooms in a shared house or flat with other
student from 1960 to 2000.

The percentage in 1960 was the lowest i.e. 35%, in 1970 it increased to 40%, then in 1980 to
60%, 1990 to 65% and in 2000 it was increased up to 70%. This chart shows us that there
was a constant increase in the rooms in a shared house or flat with other student. This chart
clearly tells us that the demand of PGs has been raised over the decade and people are
converting their property into paying guest accommodation for the purpose of earning
more.

This paper will focus on the impacts that paying guest accommodation have on the life of
the students who are living there for their business purpose or for their studies. Like how
living as a paying guest requires one to follow a set of etiquette. Bound by the various rules
for going out, partying, gossiping, and meeting friends, scholars have to devote a
considerable part of the day to studies. What are the security standards, quality of food,
the air quality, nutrition value addition, the environment etc. are some topics which will
have the emphasis on.

Key words: paying guest accommodation, features, problems for students, environment,
safety, nutrition value addition.
 5

PROBLEM STATEMENT
This research project will review a problem faced by students, related to the security of their
lives and concern about their lives in paying guest. The security of the students is the major
concern of the parents. Most of the time, the origin of the health problems is related to the
food provided by them. The stale vegetables are usually used, which are inexpensive to
reduce their cost. And not only this, sometimes, electronic appliances are not repaired for a
long time, which puts a danger to life. Another issue that students encounter while staying
in a PG is the private life. Every student needs some personal space, so moving to PG is
certainly out. The personal space is restricted to students’ bed and they get disappointed if
anyone anticipated home like comfort.

There is a need to find out whether the food provided to the paying guests is fulfilling the
nutritive value, are they required with proper balanced diet, what kind of facilities are
provided to them and are they being able to utilize those facilities, what are the safety
conditions, the timings and the behavior of owners.

Thus, this research will focus on the problems related to the management of the house, the
factors which affect the lifestyle of the students, satisfaction of needs and wants of the
paying guests, what safety conditions are provided to them, what type of environment are
they surrounded with , whether they feel comfortable there or not. These will be areas
where our researches will emphasis on.
 6

Need and Significances of the Research and Contribution

Nowadays, paying the guest accommodation has become very common in every city due to
the various needs of people, like education, jobs etc. People living in PG’s are also facing
various security issues. The need for this research has arisen because many incidents have
occurred regarding the security of students living in PG.

Recently, an accident took place in Chandigarh. Fire broke out in PG accommodation which
was unregistered. Thus incident was held in sector 32-D, Chandigarh. This PG facility was
sublet to brokers. In of greed of earning more money, the floor was divided into PVC wall
partitions with three rooms having a common entry through alley. The reason was
suspected to be a laptop charger explosion, but due to flammable PVC panels, bed sheets
and other linen. The fire spread explosively. The building did not have proper ventilation or
fire safety measures to help the girls who were trapped inside. Three girls died due to this
accident strict action was taken on those who were found guilty. An audit of all PG facilities
in the city was done. Three girls died due to burns, suffocation and smoke inhalation. The
significance of this research is that we can find out whether security is being provided for
the students residing in PG’s. Our beneficiaries are students living in PG’s because they will
tell you the current problems they are facing in PG’s and you are being provided for them.
The significance of this research is as follows:

 To check the water and sanitation facilities

 To check the food and nutrition value
 Building are fire check
 7

The Theory used in this Research

The theory behind this research is Maslow’s Need Hierarchy theory. This theory was
propounded by Abraham Maslow in 1946 paper “A theory of Human Motivation” and later
in his book “Motivation and Personality “. Maslow need hierarchy theory is a motivational
theory based on human needs start from fulfilling the basic needs to higher level needs. This
theory is represented by a pyramid. Firstly, the physiological needs should be fulfilled, these
are the basic needs like air, water, food, clothing, shelter. Then comes safety needs which
deals with personal security, employment, etc. Love and belongingness needs which include
family, friends, and sense of connection. Next are self esteem needs i.e. desire to become
the most one can be. This need gives the highest level of satisfaction.

Our topic, impact of PG on students is based on safety needs which comes after the
fulfillment of physiological needs. As the students who were residing in PGs need to have
proper security in the accommodations. As the incident we discussed earlier happened
because of the negligence of landlords towards the security of the students. The security
needs of a individual can be proper privacy in rooms, no partitions should be made,
reasonable rent, concerned landlords, balcony’s should be covered, no interference of
landlords unnecessarily, the quality of food, charges of food, security as in proper CCTV
cameras should be there in order to prevent robbery. There have been many accidents
faced by the students of PG accommodation. In 2017, there was a robbery of laptop in a boy
PG accommodation in sector 22 Chandigarh. In spite of filling an FIR by the landlords, still
there was the use. The laptop couldn`t be found. Another case happened recently in
Mukherjee Naggar, Delhi in a coaching centre. Around 250 students were attending classes
at that time. Student saved their lives by getting down through pipes. It was found that the
building did not have any fire equipment. These causalities occur due to the negligence of
people.

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

Self actualization needs

Esteem needs

Social needs

Safety needs

Physiological needs
 8

Literature Review and Hypothesis

Ms. Prachi Rattanpal in her study of, reasons why people choose to reside in paying guest
accommodation (2019) identified that the lifestyle that the respondents had was to some
extent, a lifestyle which they wanted but could not have it when they were living with their
parents at home. But the lifestyle was a copied version of what they see on media or see in
their daily lives or through the influence of the people around them. She also founded in her
research that most of the respondents living in the paying guest were students who were
enrolled in various city colleges or institutions and the number of respondents residing in
paying guest for business purpose or for job were very few in numbers as compared to the
students. There was not much difference between the expenditure incurred by girls and
boys on the accommodation and in the inclusion of the food in the charges of
accommodation. Also none of the students had the source of any extra income generation
and nearly half of them did not do any saving. She identified that, the lowest proportion of
respondents that was 3% were those who were above the age of 27 years. And 75% of the
respondents were in the age group of 19-24 years, who were either doing their masters or
internship. 16% of the respondents were living in independent room in their paying guest
accommodation, out of which girls were more than the boys, while 83% of the respondents
were living in a shared accommodation. Shared accommodation was more preferred by the
respondents as it meant paying fewer charges for the paying guest accommodation, as
compared to independent accommodations.

Mr. Sujit Goswami in his study of paying guest rental management system (2022), founded
that, the paying guest accommodation system is a manually maintained system. The owners
update the apartment and room details about the room space, room rent, pictures and the
address also. He took a survey in which he founded that almost every paying guest
accommodation keeps or maintains the records by hands in a notebook or in some kind of
papers. All the room records are maintained for the details of each student, rent details,
room allocations, their address, phone numbers etc. All these details are entered and
retrieved manually. This theory concluded as the most of the details and information were
stored in writing form, there were many disadvantages like it was very time consuming,
there were problem of updating, and inaccuracy of data.

Ms. Utsavi Bhavsar and Mr. Ankit Dwivedi in their research on rented accommodation and
its users, founded in his research that out of 100 only 10% of the students surveyed, stay at
their relative’s residence. And the rest 90% of the students surveyed currently reside in
college hostels, PG accommodation or rented residence. The reason for those 10% students
 9

who were surveyed for not residing in PG and hostels was the lack of facilities. They
believed that the facilities provided in paying guest accommodations were not sufficient for
them also the restrictions burdened up on the students was an obstacle for them residing in
the paying guest accommodation. When they surveyed about the facilities being provided
at their current residence, the very basic requirement of a student were provided by their
current place residence like:

 Individual clean beds

 Attached bathrooms
 Individual cupboards
 Hot water/geyser facility

These were the basic facilities which were fulfilled by the paying guest accommodations.

They discovered that only 5% of the students spend less than 6 hours at their residence and
rest 92% of the students surveyed spend a considerable amount of time at their residence.
Out of which, 10 to 12 hours were the maximum numbers of hours a student spend in
his/her paying guest accommodation.

This study is designed to assess the hypothesis that sleep-deprived people will perform
worse on a test than individuals who are not sleep- deprived. There is a need to enhance the
security management in paying guest accommodation including the safety measures and
the quality of food.

The security can be enhanced by implementing CCTV cameras outside the rooms, the
entrances and the main gate. By this it can be found that at what timings students enter and
exit their room and PGs. This can also reduce the theft and robberies which occur in most of
the paying guest accommodations and people doubt in residing there. Another security
measure can be hiring a watchman in the main gate or entrance by which no third party or
unnecessary person could enter the building. Establishing biometric is also another security
measure which should be implemented in every paying guest accommodation. Biometric
keeps the records of students, like their presence and absence, their timings of leaving and
entering the PGs, the number of hours they are staying inside the PG and outside the PG.
Therefore these can be some of the security measures that paying guest accommodation
can carry out to ensure the security of students and their possessions.

Discussing about the quality of food being served in the paying guest accommodation, most
of the complaints were regarding the food. Students complained that variety of food wasn`t
served there, most of the vegetables were the inexpensive ones by which the requirement
of balanced diet was not fulfilling. For this purpose PGs must include all type of vegetables
 10

with pulses irrespective of the price because students are paying for the food and the
residence. A nutritive diet plan must be followed every day for the health benefits. For
example replacement of cooking oil. Many paying guest accommodations makes use of
refined oil for cooking purpose and refined oil is very hazardous for health, it increases the
heart disease risk, weakens bones. The PGs must make use of mustard oil in place of refined
oil, as mustard oil is much nutritive and beneficial for health than refined and other oils.
Only fresh vegetables must be cooked. Breakfast, lunch, dinner each one should be provided
at the right time and in right quantity. As eating food at right time is also beneficiary for our
health. The diet plan must include all types of nutrition in one plate in desired proportion
like a nutritive plate must include a bowl of vegetable, a bowl of any pulse, roti, fruit and
any kind of liquid.

The presence of fire extinguisher in every paying guest accommodation should be made
necessary so that incident occurred in sector 32 of Chandigarh (which we have discussed
earlier) must not be repeated. And students must be taught how to use fire extinguisher so
that they can save themselves from any kind of fire incident. There must be proper
ventilation in the rooms provided for students for good quality and fresh air. Separate locker
must be provided for each student to decrease the chances of theft and robbery. It is also
essential for the safeness of the belongings of the students and to reduce the conflicts.
There shouldn`t be extra workload on the electrical appliances