When Ishita Lalan moved to the United States in 2018, she had a simple dream. Get a stable job, build a life with her husband Harshad, and settle into the version of the American dream most immigrants are chasing. What she didn't expect was that a visa delay during COVID, a $330,000 riverfront cabin, and a lot of late nights painting walls herself would turn into a design studio serving clients across the country.
Ishita is the founder of Ishita Interiors, a short-term rental design and investment firm she and Harshad built from the ground up. On a recent episode of Radical Hospitality, she sat down with host Zeke Freeman to talk about how her background in architecture, combined with real hands-on investing experience, shaped a design philosophy that's a little different from most interior designers. She doesn't just design for beauty. She designs for return.
It Started With a House Hack
Before Ishita Interiors existed, Ishita and Harshad were just a young couple trying to figure out their financial future. Harshad worked in aerospace engineering, Ishita worked at an architecture firm, and on the side, they were house hacking their condo to cover their mortgage. That small win planted a seed. By 2018 and 2019, short-term rentals were picking up steam, and the couple decided to take their extra savings and jump in.
Their first real project was a two-bedroom cabin on a riverfront, purchased for $330,000. They didn't have much capital, so they did almost everything themselves, nights and weekends, around their day jobs. Six months later, after a full cosmetic renovation, the property reappraised at $475,000. They pulled their capital back out, kept the property, and it went on to generate well over $100,000 in rental income in its first year.
That project became the blueprint for everything that followed.
From Investor to Designer, Almost by Accident
Ishita didn't originally set out to start a design firm. In fact, she was on a path toward getting licensed as an architect in the U.S., a process she knew would take seven or eight years. Then COVID hit, and her work visa renewal got stuck in delays. Unable to legally work, she found herself with a few months of unexpected free time, right as demand for short-term rental design was exploding.
She started picking up freelance design projects through Facebook groups. Within a year, she had replaced her full income. There was no going back to a W2 job after that.
Designing With ROI in Mind
What sets Ashita Interiors apart is the way Ishita approaches every project. Before any design work begins, her team runs a 90-minute consultation call with new clients. The first half of that call is pure market research, pulling comparable properties, studying local competition, and analyzing data from sources like AirDNA. Only after they understand a market's ceiling do they move on to design inspiration and a ballpark budget.
It's a process built on the same instincts that guided her own investing. In competitive markets like Asheville, that might mean building out a full home theater or a speakeasy lounge to stand out. In other markets, a few well-placed amenities might be enough. The goal is always the same: create something guests will stop scrolling for, while making sure the investment actually pays off.
Some of Her Favorite Projects
One project close to her heart is Oak and Ember Estate in Kentucky, where an unfinished basement became a hidden speakeasy behind an invisible door, complete with a bourbon lounge, poker table, and adjoining theater room. Another favorite involved a modest three-bedroom home with no extra indoor space to work with. Instead of giving up, Ishita's team turned the front yard into an outdoor oasis with a spa, dining area, fire pit, and outdoor movie setup. The landscaping project cost around $85,000. It doubled the property's expected annual revenue, taking it from a projected $60,000 to $130,000 in year one.
Building a Team Without Losing the Details
Ashita Interiors has grown from a solo operation to a team of 30 designers handling around 20 projects at any given time. To keep quality consistent, Ishita built what she calls a pyramid structure: design managers act as quality gatekeepers, lead designers run the day-to-day work, and junior designers support the process. Every mood board still passes through her before it reaches a client.
She also runs weekly workshops for her team, since most designers come from residential or commercial backgrounds and short-term rental design is its own category entirely. It calls for a different mindset, one built around experience, storytelling, and yes, financial return.
A Trend She's Ready to Retire
When asked what design trend she's tired of seeing, Ishita didn't hesitate: neon signs. Her take is that too many hosts reach for trendy decor without thinking about whether it actually fits the space. She'd rather see intentional design choices that reflect the property's location and story, whether that's custom curved wood ceiling details, ambient lighting, or a mural on what she calls the "fifth surface," the ceiling.
The Bigger Lesson
What comes through most in this conversation isn't just a business playbook. It's a reminder that Ishita and Harshad built something meaningful by combining what they knew, taking a real financial risk, and staying curious. Ishita mentioned she's never had a formal business coach. Instead, she's leaned on friends, other entrepreneurs, and constant learning to figure things out along the way.
For anyone thinking about short-term rentals, or anyone building a business from scratch, her story is proof that the biggest returns often start with the smallest, scrappiest projects.
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