Job Description Area Manager
Company Name: ZoloStays
Business Unit: SHB2C (Student Housing Sales & Supply)
Designation: Area Manager
Location: Pune
Employment Type: Full-time
About Zolo
Zolo is India's largest and most trusted co-living and managed accommodation platform, operating across multiple verticals including Co-Living, Z Hotels, Loop Hostels, Student Housing, Real Estate, and Vacations. With operations across major cities, Zolo provides secure, comfortable, and community-centric living solutions trusted by thousands of students and working professionals.
About Student Housing at Zolo
Zolo's Student Housing division provides safe, high-quality, and fully-managed accommodations designed specifically for students and parents who seek reliability, comfort, and a structured living environment.
We operate large-format student residences with a focus on:
- Safety, hygiene, and compliance
- Organized meal plans and housekeeping
- 24x7 student support
- Study-friendly spaces and structured routines
- Community-building activities
- Transparent communication with parents
The Area Manager plays a critical role in shaping the end-to-end student experience, ensuring properties operate smoothly while maintaining academic-friendly environments, strong parent confidence, and high occupancy.
Role Overview
The Area Manager is a leadership position responsible for driving Sales (Occupancy), Supply (New Property Acquisition), and Operations across multiple student housing and co-living properties in Pune.
You will be responsible for cluster-level performance, P&L understanding, team leadership, new site launches, and maintaining Zolo's service benchmarks.
This role is ideal for someone who has managed multi-site operations, driven occupancy growth, and worked with student-centric or hospitality environments.
Key Responsibilities
1. Occupancy & Sales Ownership
- Achieve occupancy targets across student housing and co-living properties.
- Identify local student demand hubs (colleges, coaching centres, PG clusters).
- Build partnerships with colleges, training institutes, and student communities.
- Analyse weekly sales numbers and take action on early occupancy dips.
2. Supply & New Property Launches
- Identify and acquire new student housing properties and buildings.
- Lead end-to-end launch processes: setup, branding, first occupancy, stabilization.
- Conduct market research to find high-potential student zones.
- Handle owner/broker negotiations professionally.
3. Operations & P&L Management
- Ensure daily operations, housekeeping, meals, safety, and student comfort are maintained.
- Conduct audits and enforce SOPs strictly.
- Track expenses, vendor costs, and property-level profitability.
- Resolve student/parent escalations promptly.
4. Team Leadership
- Lead 57 Executives/Managers across properties.
- Train teams on student experience standards, discipline, and communication.
- Run weekly reviews to track occupancy, operations, and complaints.
- Build a culture of accountability and proactive problem-solving.
5. Parent & Student Relationship Management
- Maintain strong rapport with parentstransparency, trust, and timely updates.
- Ensure complaint resolution within defined SLAs.
- Drive initiatives around safety, discipline, and community activities.
Skills Required
Core Skills
- Multi-property or cluster-level management experience.
- Strong exposure to occupancy, sales funnels, revenue metrics, and P&L basics.
- Experience launching and stabilizing new housing/hostel properties.
- Strong customer orientationespecially with students and parents.
- Vendor negotiation and budgeting capability.
- Ability to use data and weekly numbers for decision-making.
Team Management
- Experience leading teams of 57 people.
- Strong training, motivation, and performance management skills.
- Ability to enforce discipline and daily process adherence.
Persona Traits
- Ownership mindsetFixes issues before they escalate.
- Hustler attitudeFast, hands-on, and action-oriented.
- Calm under pressureHandles peak occupancy seasons with composure.
- Student-first approachEmpathetic, disciplined, and parent-trust focused.
- Process-drivenBelieves in SOPs, checklists, and predictable execution.
- Growth mindsetWilling to learn, experiment, and expand business.
Education:
- Bachelor's degree in Hospitality / Business / Management
- MBA or Postgraduate preferred
Why Join Zolo
- Lead the Student Housing growth in Pune
- Own both Sales + Supply for your cluster
- Exposure to multi-property operations and new site launches
- Clear growth path: Area Manager Regional Manager
- Freedom to innovate and build high-impact initiatives
- Be part of India's fastest-growing accommodation ecosystem
Salary
8 LPA 13 LPA (CTC)
Based on experience and capability
