Across Asia now, we have Roomorama which has set up base in Singapore and travelmob about to be launched, and Airbnb (in particular) and 9flats expanding across the region.
In China alone, there are countless clones and some of them gaining more traction than others – Airizu and Tujia, which recently received funding from backers like Homeaway and Ctrip.
It is a space not to be ignored because not only does it give travellers choices – and interesting ones because there’s a new kind of traveller looking for new kinds of local experiences – but it also gives homeowners flexibility to “monetize” their assets as it were.
A travel friend in Singapore, who is about to relocate and couldn’t break his rental lease earlier than he wanted, told me how he put his apartment up for Airbnb to try cover his costs and found himself inundated with requests that he’s now filled up his apartment with back-to-back customers for two months.
“What I found was that the faster I responded, the higher my listing went and so more requests came in,” he said at which point he added, “Sorry, I have to respond to this request.”
Another expatriate friend, living in Singapore, is thinking of buying a place in London and working out how to let it out via sites like Airbnb so he can cover the mortgage.
The social Internet is ultimately about giving power to the people and it seems with this model, the power is in the people’s hands to let their homes out to whom they like when they like and for however much.
The hotel model is too rigid to allow that kind of empowerment and choice.
And in case we think it’s all going to go away – remember Couchsurfing several years ago when people said, “who’d want to sleep on other people’s couches” – it’s not. What it will do is change and evolve as regulators, authorities and industry catch up with the wave.
In Singapore, hoteliers are doing too well to care about this small wave yet. And regulators are stepping in to tell home owners of public housing that it’s illegal to let their space out to strangers – but really, if I have a couch and a spare room, what’s to stop me from offering it to friends because isn’t that what we’ve all become – “friends” through social sharing, which is the new aspect coming into play in start-ups now entering this space.
And I believe the players are nimble enough to manouevre any wave that comes along.
Anyway, there is no sign of things dying down at the present moment – just this week, I got news of two similar start-ups in the US receiving funding. Both use social graphs.
The first – Gistly.com, an online apartment rental marketplace that matches prospective renters with rental apartments/homes via personalized user ratings score cards. It unveiled its release via Fundable.com, the first crowdfunding site for start-ups. With its acceptance amongst thousands of applications, it aims to secure part of its initial seed round of $10,000.
Its founder, serial entrepreneur Carmen Benitez, whom I met at Echelon, said, “The current approach to online apartment search is beyond dated. Think about it… how many more steps will it take to make sure your new apartment is right when your choices are simply filtered by price, square footage and number of bedrooms/bathrooms? That type of search is painful, broken and doesn’t work.
“Our core team decided we could do much better and offer a solution that was actually user-centric based on the online prospective renter’s current rental wants and needs on things that matter most to their lifestyle.”
The second, CasaHop announced a $1.2 million in seed funding from lead investor Lerer Ventures, Andre Balazs, First Round Capital, Betaworks, David Tisch, Bob Pittman, Jonah Goodhart, Dave Morgan and Nicholas Negroponte. CasaHop uses algorithms to mine social data to optimize users’ home exchange experiences around shared passions, interests and backgrounds.
CasaHop users connect with their Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter accounts to find targeted listings that reflect their interests and passions. The site’s technology creates prospective exchange matches based on a vast and growing set of psychographic data, from users’ educational backgrounds and music tastes to common interests such as yoga, cooking or hiking.
“When it comes to home exchanges, finding the right match with people whom you can trust is everything,” said Florent Peyre, co-founder and president of CasaHop. He was former VP of business development and strategy at Gilt City.
So watch this space, everyone. Many will come, some will fail, a few will fly, but it’s changing the way travellers book and choose where to stay.
