Welcome to the HouseTrip blog!

We thought it would be interesting to launch the blog with a series of posts about our short history: “where it all began” starts at the very beginning, the birth of the HouseTrip idea!

I remember exactly when and why I got the idea for HouseTrip: Junjun and I were driving from London to Lausanne (Switzerland), the car completely packed with all the stuff we had accumulated during the 7-month internship in the City of London and I was thinking about those two events, which – I didn’t know – would change my life.

Finding a Bed and Breakfast (B&B) in Scotland

The first event I was thinking about was when I tried to find a nice B&B for a weekend in Scotland: it doesn’t seem like much of a life-changing event but bear with us

Eilean Donan Castle - Beautiful Scotland!

Since we didn’t know much about Scotland, it would have been nice for us to choose from B&Bs based on their characteristics: close to a lake, in the nature, double-bed, convenient parking, for instance. But we could only click on a specific location and then basically go through each single B&B in that area only.

Finally, because we had heard of it, we decided on the Fort William area and searched in that specific place.

For those of you who already booked a B&B somewhere, you probably know that you have to contact the B&B owners in order to book, direct booking (as we know it with hotels) doesn’t exist. So we started sending out emails and after several days of back and forth communications with several owners, we finally had our Saturday night booked in Fort William!

The big day had come and we merrily drove from Edinburgh through the beautiful Scottish countryside all the way to Fort William where we arrived around 10pm.

Queen's view, next to Pitlochry

The hostess was very nice because, even though we hadn’t confirmed our room during the day (we had totally forgotten to do that!), she had still kept it for us. If you don’t experience such nice hospitality, either remember to confirm your arrival during the day or wait for HouseTrip’s release for direct booking .

Scotland was an amazing experience and its beautiful landscape certainly inspired me greatly for the HouseTrip idea.

Renting out a flat in Lausanne

The second event that helped me shape the HouseTrip idea was when we tried to rent out our place in Lausanne for the month of July. In order to do so, we went to all those “classified ads” websites and posted our property. We limited ourselves to the few ones that are free for posting. The problem we experienced with those free websites was to make our place stand out: to actually show potential guests that it was a nice place to stay at!

Vineyards by the Leman lake, a few minutes away from our place

With only a few small pictures allowed and a field for free text, it was not very easy. In addition to that, our house posting was lost in a long list of other properties: it is almost by coincidence that potential guests find your property, we were thinking… In the end, we only received few enquiries which unfortunately never worked out and thus our place remained empty for the month of July… Sob…

Back in the car: the HouseTrip idea!

And there, back in my car at the border in Dover, I got the HouseTrip idea!

A website that focuses on short-term rentals and which will make the rental process finally fun and convenient for both guests and hosts! When the idea was at the very spark in my mind, I remember picturing many images: a map with a lot of properties tagged on it, an online chat between an owner and a tenant, a “book it now” button, etc. Funny how some mental images stay: they are still in my mind today and I often somehow refer to them – to the original HouseTrip vision – when I need to.

Back in the car, I was trying to arrange my thoughts and to reflect on what HouseTrip could encompass:

• A revenue management system? Yes, so that the rental prices are actually adapted to the demand, inexpensive when the demand is low, more expensive when many people want to stay in a property!
• A great search function so that tenants can find the one property suitable for them? Of course!
• A property profile page? With HouseTrip, hosts will be able to describe their place in as much depth as they want and make it stand out.
• What about direct booking? Yes, like that it is as easy and simple as booking a hotel.
• What about some social features? So that HouseTrip users can give tips to each other and develop a community around the only real way to discover a place: sleep at the locals’ homes!

I was so excited in my car that I genuinely was driving at about 10 miles an hour on the highway, absorbed in my thoughts!

The day I got the HouseTrip idea: picture taken on the boat between Dover and France

A new post follows this one, you can see it here.