Randy Engler had a problem. Back in 2012, too many people wanted to rent his apartment in New York's West Village. Engler, a tech executive who had just quit his job, was supposed to be enjoying a series of vacations with his wife, but instead, he was scrambling to service the guests who had rented out his place on Airbnb, booking cleaning services at the last minute and trying to persuade local Starbucks baristas to hold his apartment keys for late-arriving guests.
All this was a serious pain, but it sparked an idea. In April 2013, Engler launched Proprly, a property management service tailored to people who rent their rooms out via sites like Airbnb and HomeAway. Proprly handles key exchange and cleaning so you don't have to, and it lays on a few extra amenities for good measure. In its first year, Proprly has handled thousands of bookings in its home market of New York City, and it has grown revenue 40 percent each month on average. Now, Engler is preparing to launch in San Francisco this summer and in Paris in the fall.
>As it turns out, he's not the only entrepreneur trying to get rich by offering new services around Airbnb.
As it turns out, he's not the only entrepreneur trying to get rich by offering new services around Airbnb. An even newer startup, six-month-old Guesty, will handle other tasks for you, screening guests according to your criteria and helping with customer support. Two other startups, Vancouver's KeyCafe (nine months old) and Berlin's Hoard (still in testing), also want to help Airbnb hosts hand off their keys to renters, aiming to expand beyond their home markets and into the U.S.
Meanwhile, Airbnb has discussed plans for its own cleaning and key-exchange services. Whether the nascent ecosystem of Airbnb support startups can withstand that kind of competition remains to be seen, but right now, there's ample opportunity in simply improving on the Airbnb experience.
Engler hopes that in making the process easier for Airbnb hosts, he can also help expand the service to a new kind of guest. He's eying "this whole middle market that has never tried Airbnb," people like his parents "who say it's kind of strange to stay in someone else's house with someone else's sheets." Companies like his can make the service more attractive "by raising the bar."
At Proprly, "raising the bar" includes providing "key concierges" who greet guests at any hour of the day or night, handing over keys but also carrying luggage and even placing flowers, champagne, or hand-written notes in the room as specified by the owner. Meanwhile, the company's contract cleaners are trained in how prepping an Airbnb room is different from cleaning an ordinary home. It strives to dress beds to hotel standards, with crisp and taut sheets and, when the owner permits, a mint on the pillow. It also aims for faster turnaround since, Engler says, vacationers put far less wear and tear on an apartment than a resident (they tend to be out and about during the day rather than hanging around the unit) and there's no telling when a new booking might come in.
Proprly's cleaning fees run about 30 to 40 percent above what a typical service would charge, Engler says. Some hosts, he explains, will pay a premium because better cleaning and faster turnaround bolsters both their Airbnb user ratings and their profits. The flip side is that property management is a ton of work for Engler, and, with the busy summer season looming, he regrets not launching with a co-founder to help shoulder the burden.
Amiad Soto and his twin brother Koby tried running a similar service, but it didn't quite work out. The Israelis, an amateur pilot and software engineer respectively, then took their Airbnb support business through the YCombinator accelerator program and emerged with a new name and a new mission. Their venture, Guesty, now handles customer screening and support. Owners set up their preferences and availability through Guesty's web interface, and Guesty takes things from there, not only screening guests but providing renters with codes to lock boxes, answering any questions they might have, and contacting cleaning services on the owner's behalf.
Amiad Soto says inspiration for the venture came when his brother had to leave a beach in Spain to deal with emails from an Airbnb guest back in Israel. Since launching in mid-January--offering services to hosts in any English-speaking market--the startup has signed up more than 600 owners. Soto believes that, this time, he's onto something--a trend that will change the market. "You would not believe how many people have said: 'Oh my god. You stole my idea.'"
