If you scroll through Instagram long enough, you will find beautiful food videos everywhere. But once in a while, a reel does more than make you hungry. It makes you curious. Curious about the person behind the food. Curious about the home it is cooked in. Curious enough to imagine yourself sitting at that dining table.
That quiet curiosity is what eventually led travellers to Oyster Marris Homestays.
Before it became a recognised homestay in Thiruvananthapuram, Oyster Marris was simply a home — and Aswathy was simply sharing her everyday cooking online. There was no intention to turn content into commerce. Her videos showed traditional Kerala meals prepared the way they are in most households, without performance or polish. Slowly, those reels began travelling far beyond her immediate audience, drawing attention from people who had never been to Kerala.
As the messages increased, so did the questions. Could visitors stay there? Could they experience this way of living, even briefly?
Around the same time, Aswathy had resigned from her job. The decision was abrupt, but clear-headed. “Unexpectedly I resigned from my job and we thought together to do something different,” she says. “I didn’t want to work anywhere else in shift basis.” Conversations with close friends and her own travel experiences across homestays in Kerala helped shape what came next.
What stood out to her during those travels was not luxury, but comfort. “We travelled and stayed in so many homestays. Then we got an idea,” she recalls. The decision to start her own homestay followed soon after, with one non-negotiable condition — it would be women- and family-friendly from the very beginning.
In 2021, in the middle of the pandemic, she converted her own home into a homestay. There was no separate financial outlay. “No additional investment. Our home is what we converted as a homestay,” Aswathy says. “Our time and effort is our investment.”
The location was chosen carefully. Situated close to the city centre of Thiruvananthapuram, Oyster Marris offers easy access to major landmarks while remaining part of a quiet residential neighbourhood. For guests, this balance of accessibility and calm becomes part of the appeal.
Food, however, is what defines the stay. Guests are served three traditional meals a day, cooked at home and served in a traditional manner. “We provide three times traditional meal in a traditional manner. Completely organic and home-cooked food,” Aswathy explains. “We use our own masalas and powders, not into packed masalas. That’s what makes the difference.”
For many international guests, this becomes their first experience of Kerala beyond hotels and resorts. Meals are shared, not staged. The setting feels lived-in, not curated. The experience is less about accommodation and more about stepping into everyday life.
As Oyster Marris began gaining attention, social media naturally became a driver of bookings — but without deliberate influencer-style promotion. Aswathy continued posting content consistently, expanding from cooking to everyday moments from the homestay. “We have posted around 1,250 videos and posts on social media,” she says. Today, she estimates that around 60 per cent of bookings come through direct enquiries and social media, with the rest coming from online platforms.
Despite the growing popularity, Oyster Marris has remained intentionally small, with just three rooms. There are no immediate plans for expansion. For Aswathy, hospitality is not meant to scale endlessly. “Home stays are not a single owner business. It must be a family venture,” she says. “That’s what creates a different ambience in homestays.”
Ask her what a good month looks like, and she avoids numbers. Revenue, she believes, is secondary. “In tourism and hospitality field never think about the revenue,” Aswathy says. “Focus on the service we provide. Revenue will come automatically.”
Oyster Marris Homestays did not grow through advertising or aggressive expansion. It grew because a few cooking reels made people pause — and because a woman chose to open her home exactly as it was, allowing travellers to experience Kerala not as a product, but as a way of life.
