Indeed, in our view, the industry can include a lot of different lodging scenarios of which a few examples follow:

Home owners with a self-catering cottage next to their main residence

The student who makes his/her guest(s) sleep on his/her couch for a few days

Hosts who professionally run a bed & breakfast

Owners of a second home, who decide to rent it out when they leave it vacant

Hosts with a free bedroom which they decide to rent out

Considering the above, the main characteristics of this industry are the following:

• Peer-to-peer: in most cases, it is “real people” dealing with fellow “real people”
• Different levels of professionalism: spaces can be rented occasionally like they can be rented on a full-time basis by professional hosts
• Diversity: short-term rentals are always full of – good – surprises, not one rental experience resembles another
• They are everywhere: they are virtually at every inhabited place on the planet
• They are homes: it might sound like a platitude but, contrary to hotels, rentals where thought, designed and often are authentic homes with all their attributes
• They are social: whether it is because guests go there with their friends or family or because they are welcomed in a social environment, short-term rentals have strong social characteristics
• They are local: if you stay in a Paris flat located in a local neighborhood (say the Latin quarter) or New York at a New Yorker’s, you can really get a taste of the local culture; something you could never experience if you stay at a hotel
• Their prices vary: short-term rentals can cost as little as 15? a night if for instance you stay on a couch, to thousands of euros would you rent a flat in Monaco during the formula 1 race

The HouseTrip team knows this industry and our website is designed by taking all the above facets into account:

• We reduce the intermediaries and the steps between hosts and guests
• It is very simple to use, yet has numerous features, to please all hosts and guests’ levels of professionalism and dedication
• It will be the one place on the internet where rentals are described as extensively as possible, as to get a “taste” of the experience before actually staying there
• HouseTrip will be multilingual as to encompass the international dimension of rentals: we aim to have rentals virtually everywhere
• HouseTrip understands that each rental is also an unique home and tries to convey that through its website
• HouseTrip boasts plenty of social features that will help its users communicate around short-term rentals
• Our website understands this local dimension and will try to convey the local experience you will have during your stay
• HouseTrip will have a revenue management system included: hosts can choose to have their prices adapted to the demand during certain periods, creating a win-win situation where guests can find the best possible deals and hosts can determine which price their guests are ready to pay for the period

We can’t wait to introduce you our website – released in mid-summer – and until then please don’t hesitate to ask us all the questions you ask yourselves on the project. You can also register your email to be the first ones to know about the release!