Superhost (YC W14) Is Your Personal Assistant For Your Airbnb

http://techcrunch.com/2014/02/25/superhost/

by amiadsoto • 12 years ago

65 39 12 years ago

techcrunch.com

amiadsoto10• 12 years ago

Hi, this is Amiad, one of the co-founders of Superhost. Feel free to ask me questions about our service.

architbhise• 12 years ago

Hey Amiad, this is a pretty smart service. Solves a real need.

Nice one!

amiadsoto10• 12 years ago

Thank you! We actually had this problem ourselves and looked for a service like Superhost. Only after we couldn't find something affordable we went on and founded Superhost.

hellonoam2• 12 years ago

Cool service, I signed up already. I wonder though, how big do you think this market really is? I feel like this might be just a small subset of the airbnb market.

amiadsoto10• 12 years ago

Thanks for signing up!

Vacation rentals market is estimated 23 Billion dollars in the US alone.

soneca• 12 years ago

Hi Amiad! Congrats and good luck first of all!

I would like to know how do you feel creating a startup totally built upon another company's service? How do you deal with and mitigate the risk of it?

My own startup is completely based on Facebook's check-in feature, and this worries me a lot. I deal with knowing I am still under their radar, but it is the first thing I want to create a plan b to after I get some market validation.

I mean, don't you fear AriBnb pulls a twitter on you somehow? Do you plan to expand your services further than AirBnb?

amiadsoto10• 12 years ago

Hi and great question. First we don't limit ourselves in the long run to just one platform and our solution can work on all vacation rental platforms with not much to change. The reason we are holding back is that there is a big enough space for growth on Airbnb only at this tie and it's better to focus on the user experience than on expansion at this stage.

Secondly we believe in Airbnb and we only encourage more people to join their platform. To give some numbers - 30% of our users are new to Airbnb completely. So we feel Airbnb will have warm approach to Superhost rather than alienate us.

larrys2• 12 years ago

Not a question but a suggestion.

At this type of pricing (1% - seems very inexpensive) you should be selling into larger property owners. Such as condo associations where you pitch it as a controlled way for the association to make money and set boundaries on a practice that is probably going to happen anyway. And keep an eye on things and report back.

So in other words you lock up larger buildings and then come pre-introduced to the owners of individual condos as the suggested source of making all this work. And figure in a way for the condo association to offset expenses and thereby lower their monthly fees to owners.

What you need to get started on this is a few test cases which can vouch for the benefits to the building as a whole.

frakkingcylons2• 12 years ago

First off, great idea! And thanks for taking the time to answer some questions.

Your website mentions that Superhost will examine your "message history and other resources" in order to effectively speak on behalf of the property owner. Can you be more specific about what kind of data would be useful to Superhost?

What kind of experience does the Superhost team have with property management?

How are you planning on providing support (such as how to operate appliances etc.) to guests during their stay? Is there an FAQ of sorts that you'll have an owner fill out so Superhost can answer those questions on the owner's behalf?

amiadsoto10• 12 years ago

Thanks! We look for repetitive answers like parking and information on the place and area. If we don't have an answer for guest we look to see if we can find it somewhere else. Directions is very common and easy example. Most appliances have manuals online. If we just can't find it we reach out to the owner and save his response for future times. All of our receptionist are professional in the hospitality business and been trained on Airbnb platform for long time. All guests receive our phone number and email for any question. We also have a questionnaire for our users but normally we don't need it all.

pisarzp4• 12 years ago

It's cool, but there is another real problem with renting out flats on airbnb.

Many people want to rent a flat they live in, only when they are away. However, they struggle to organize cleaning, keys, change of linens etc.

We are actually building a service to help them and launching soon in London. Contact me if you want to hear more and potentially try it soon.

jamiequint2• 12 years ago

On the high-end for this there is One Fine Stay which is awesome, are you guys going to make this possible for less expensive places?

amiadsoto10• 12 years ago

I feel that the problem with One Fine Stay is it's just too pricy. Most people who Airbnb do it for the extra income. Giving 20%! doesn't make a lot of sense.

pisarzp4• 12 years ago

We want to target airbnb users, because this is where most of transactions are happening, and this is where it's easiest to rent out your flat if you're the host.

We are aiming to offer you a full service, which consists of welcoming guests in the flat, giving them keys, and then checkout plus cleaning for about 60 pounds.

From my experience for many people this is worth cost as otherwise you are just unable to rent out a flat, and this fee is less then one night in flat in London.

larrys2• 12 years ago

"However, they struggle to organize cleaning, keys, change of linens etc."

Sounds like something that YC backed homejoy could get involved in solving. That's my keiretsu of the day. [1]

https://www.homejoy.com/about

[1] http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1998/...

amiadsoto10• 12 years ago

We like Homejoy and we use their service with some of our customers. The problem is that this isn't a complete solution and even though it is the sexy part it's not even the most time consuming.

pisarzp4• 12 years ago

We would like to offer more holistic solution, which includes even things like sending you photos of the flat after check out so you're sure your flat is OK and nothing is missing.

Plus we would take care of liaising with guests etc, so it's less hassle for you. All you would do is just approve guests in airbnb.

cylinder• 12 years ago

You mean a maid. Or a property manager.

pisarzp4• 12 years ago

Yes. Only that we want to target people who are not renting their flat 'professionally', but only when they are away from their own home. This people don't have property managers and many of them don't have maids. And even if they have a maid, she might not be able to let people into the property or do the checkout.

taurussai• 12 years ago

This is a nice service. Which cities are you currently operating in?

amiadsoto10• 12 years ago

Thanks. We are live in all USA!

melvinmt• 12 years ago

How is this different from Urban Bellhop?

amiadsoto10• 12 years ago

Hi - Urban Bellhop is a different service like others that were mentioned here.

You should think of us as your personal assistant - we don't go and clean ourselves but arrange a cleaner and coordinate everything. So we take care of all the hassle for way less than other services cost - only 1%.

callmeed• 12 years ago

This sort of reminds me of the services that would help you sell your crap on Ebay back in the day. Or even agencies that help manage your AdWords campaigns.

On one hand, I think we'll see more of these "management layer" businesses on top of other services (I have a couple friends who make good side money building out sqaurespace sites for people).

On the other hand, it seems opposed to where the actual service will head. AirBnB wants it to be easy to rent your place out. They will keep making their tools/calendar easier to update. They will keep looking for ways to improve logistics (cleaning, key exchange). That's the risk, IMO.

If YC liked it enough to invest, there must be something to it. But, unless it's an acquisition to AirBnB play, I'm not sold.

nayefc2• 12 years ago

They operate in an occupying country. Shameful.

whbk2• 12 years ago

Bringing this kind of stuff to an HN post about a business is what's shameful.

nayefc2• 12 years ago

What's shameful is disregarding "this kind of stuff" on certain forums, making it acceptable in public discourse. It's like asking the civil rights movement or SA's AAM to shut up in certain places. Anyway, this is not the place to have such a discussion. Just wanted to call them out for that.

drakaal• 12 years ago

I am AirBNB host with multiple listings. I like the potential of this, but I'm extremely worried about the service based on the number of spelling and grammar errors on the site.

"We love innovations like bitcoin, But unfortunately our payment supplier don’t process bitcoin yet."

Still, I am going to talk with them shortly. I like the idea, and 1% is low enough that it would be well worth the headache since I currently am at about 75% occupancy on my listings, and just getting the cleanings and linens scheduled is a PITA.

whbk2• 12 years ago

Agreed. This reminds me of PG's comments re: founders with accents. While the spelling/grammar errors don't necessarily preclude understanding in this case, they also don't exactly inspire confidence. You guys are clearly talented and onto something here -- but this is a weakness. Luckily, it's one that's easily addressed. Ask a friend or someone in your batch to proofread the copy, pay someone the small amount it would take to have it read nicely for end users, whatever.. just get it done. You'll see a good return on that money.

BarretRafferty• 12 years ago

This is exactly what airenvy does...they are a san francisco company to. Looks like a loaded space, fun fun!

robbiemitchell• 12 years ago

How long until we see hotel-certified "indie" properties that act like franchises, complete with branded toiletries and a loyalty program for the network. "Four Seasons Oasis", "Marriott Anywhere".

Like how Trump just collects money by lending his name to other people's buildings.

Superhost (YC W14) Is Your Personal Assistant For Your Airbnb

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