Saturday, February 5, 2011
295) Hotel For Rent
Quick post before I'm out the door for the night. A friend from UCLA is in town, and he was telling me about his experiences with Air BnB. He has a whole, furnished apartment to himself in the East Village, for way less than he'd spend at a hotel.
The start up has been gaining traction and attention as of late. The basic concept is that home owners or apartment renters put their homes/apartments up for rent for travelers. Air BnB builds a community of renters and rentees, who can leave reviews of their experiences.
For those familiar with CouchSurfing, Air BnB is the for-pay version. They've essentially democratized the hotel market - now anyone can be a hotelier, so to speak. And since the barrier to entry is higher than on CrowdSurfing, the quality of accommodations is taken to a higher level (check you their Top 40 Collection - some of these properties are unbelievable.)
Whether this will have a measurable effect on the hotel industry is yet to be seen. Stay tuned.
1 comments:
Anyone can be a hotelier? That's scary actually. I think there are many people who have been in the business a long time and still find it difficult to manage. Culturally, it's not an easy to task to host very different people over and over. I'm a couchsurfing host and I between guests I feel like I need a break. Great way to earn a bit of extra money, and the site is very well designed, but I think running a hotel is a difficult profession and for most people it would not be a sustainable endeavor. People do weird stuff and being a host is tiring.
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