Priya and Vikram's Room Check

When Priya and Vikram check a room after the guests leave, they each answer alone, then see only the things they disagree about.

Who this is for

Priya runs a four-room homestay in Madikeri with her cousin Vikram. She is in Bengaluru four days a week; he lives fifteen minutes down the hill and opens the gate when she cannot. Checkout is eleven. A family of six has just left room three, two thousand rupees of deposit is sitting in the tin box, and Priya is on a call from her office asking Vikram whether the stain on the bedsheet will wash out and whether the kettle was always like that.

How the job is done today

There is a WhatsApp group called Homestay with the two of them in it. Vikram sends eleven photos with no captions. Priya sends a voice note at 11.40 asking which room the third photo is. He says the floor scratch was already there. She says it was not. Neither can prove it because the last photo of that floor is from March and nobody can find it. They settle by whoever gives up first, usually Vikram, and then he is quiet for two days. The deposit gets returned in cash at the gate while the guest waits in the car.

The screens, in order

1. Today's checkouts — Shows which rooms went empty this morning so you tap the one you are standing in front of.
2. Walk the room — Takes you through the fixed list for that room, one thing at a time, so you say fine or not fine and add a photo when it is not.
3. Sent — Confirms your answers are locked and tells you whether the other person has finished theirs yet.
4. Where you differ — Puts only the items you two answered differently side by side, with both photos, and leaves out everything you already agree on.
5. Settle it — Lets you enter the amount you have both agreed to keep back and closes that checkout with both names on it.
6. Past rooms — Lets you pull up any earlier checkout for a room when a guest writes back three weeks later saying the scratch was not theirs.

What it keeps track of

• Rooms — room name, and the fixed list of things to look at in it — bed, bathroom, geyser, kettle, floor, fan, balcony door
• Checkouts — which room, guest name, which day they left, how much deposit was held, still open or settled
• Each person's answers — who wrote it, which checkout, which item, fine or not fine, a note, a photo, and the time they sent it
• The settlement — amount kept back, what it was for, both names, and when it was agreed

The one decision that matters

Do both of them write into one shared checklist, or does each fill a private copy that only opens up once both are done? A shared list is simpler to build and easier to explain. But whoever opens it second just reads what the first one wrote and taps along with it, and the quiet disagreement stays quiet — which is the whole thing they are trying to stop. Go with two private copies, locked the moment you send, revealed only when both are in. It costs one extra waiting screen and it is the reason the app exists. Vikram will only be honest about the floor if he knows Priya cannot see him answering.

What to leave out of the first version

Leave out anything the guest touches. No report emailed to them, no refund paid through the app, no signature at the gate. The deposit is cash from a tin box and that is fine. The argument is between Priya and Vikram, not between them and the guest, and the moment a guest can see the checklist both of them will start writing for an audience. Also skip any scoring or history of who was right more often. Keep it to one room, one morning, two answers.

How you would know it worked

The Homestay WhatsApp group goes quiet. No uncaptioned photos at 11.20, no voice note asking which room that is. And the first time a guest writes back saying the kettle was already broken, Priya finds that checkout in under a minute and Vikram's note says the same thing hers does.

Build it

Paste this in and let it run.

I run a small homestay in Madikeri, four rooms, and my cousin Vikram checks the rooms when I am away in Bengaluru. We keep arguing about damage after guests leave, so I want a phone app where both of us walk the room separately and answer the same short list for that room, bed, bathroom, geyser, kettle, wooden floor, fan, with a photo and a note if something is not right. Neither of us should see what the other wrote until both of us have finished, and once I send mine I should not be able to change it. After that it should show me only the things where our two answers do not match, with both photos next to each other, so we talk about those and nothing else. Then let us type the amount we finally agreed to keep back from the deposit and save it against that guest with both our names and the date, so I can find it again if they call me next month.