Saturday, December 3, 2016, 2:16 AM
The Spanish startup Spotahome offers a disruptive model that revolves the real estate sector. It is an online platform similar to Airbnb that offers the most complete advertisements for apartments, rooms, studies and homes for students and professionals. The most important difference with the North -American fashion website is that the tenant must be larger than the month. Spotahome focuses on the market for residence in medium and long term and covers the entire non -holidate rental of more than 30 days.
Although it is an online reservation platform, such as books or Airbnb, they saw that “in the long -term sector were not transaction models, everything you found, traditional agencies or pages classified as an idealist or photocasa,” says Alejandro Artacho, CEO and Cofounder.
It is also the only “marketplace” that is responsible for visiting and personal checking of all the properties they offer. They take professional photos, record plans, record videos in High -Definition of real estate and neighborhood and contain very detailed descriptions. They show everything that is needed for the future tenant to know the property in its entirety without visiting it.
For example, these virtual visits place the future tenant in the houses. They are first personal videos made by those who are known as “runners”, local people responsible for approaching the characteristics for rent to describe them in the best possible way and to provide all information to future customers.
To upload a house to the platform, it is usually the owners who have brought themselves into contact with them, but on other occasions it is the startup itself who has access to the owners who are not only people, but also real estate companies that are dedicated to purchase or construction and the subsequent rentals.
Spotahome is “comfort and convenience” for both owners and tenant, they say from the company. The first may only be determined to rent, open the door to the “runner” and send the conditions (minimum rental time, whether or not you accept pets, are accepted as smokers, etc.). In a few hours the announcement will be on the internet and the owner will start receiving reservations.
Operation
The tenant only has to open Spotahome, whose use is intuitive and adapts to any device, both computer and tablet and mobile. The first step is to choose the city in which you are looking for a floor, filtering the personal search criteria, to choose the property most in accordance with your needs and select the time period. The reservation is made 100% online via three different payment methods and the owner will confirm or refuse the application.
“When the tenant reserves and pays the first month, we charge a small percentage of the lease, part that is five times less than a traditional agency,” says Artacho.
At the moment, the vast majority of the houses offered are shared floors that are rented by rooms, perfect for students or people who find their first job. More than 1,300,000 nights have already been reserved. Since they started, more than 25 million euros on the market.
The good work that has been done by Spotahome so far has led them to be the big winners of the 5th edition of the South Summit, including more than 3,000 companies around the world. Emphasize for his innovation, the viability and scalability of his technology. Thanks to this prestigious prize, the Spanish company will enjoy more financing, visibility and easy access to strategic similarities.
The first rent, in two hours
“We launched Spotahome in March 2014 and in less than two hours a Japanese reserved for a year and a half. Accidents were the Japanese in Madrid and were looking for a flat in the city, so we only had nine properties. At the moment our network has more than 25,000 and is constantly growing every day,” the CEO says. The template has also grown, four people started and there are currently 125 in the offices and almost 200 “runners”.
Although it is a Spanish startup, it is currently available in 16 cities that are spread in ten countries: Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Sevilla, Granada, Rome, Milan, Paris, Lyon, London, Brussels, Berlin, Dublin, Vienna, Istanbul and Dubai.
“We want to keep expanding, we want to enter the Portugal and the Scandinavian countries. Establishing our area of influence in Germany and of course reaching the United States, the real estate world in New York is impressive. In Eastern countries such as Japan and China I think it would be a ball, it has been proven that we have arrived until it worked.
Everything offline for online
“In the future we imagine that Spotahome in the future as the world’s largest online real estate company. We are currently focused on the rental market, but within the real estate sector there are millions of transactions through various business models that move billions of dollars,” says the Co -founder of the company.
Artacho ensures that his mission is to “identify everything that is handled offline, how it is done and pass on to online.” In this way homemade will have more comfort because they do not have to be aware of visits and manage all movements through the computer, smartphone or tablet. For the tenant: “With Spotahome, the visits are virtual from home without having to date the owner.”
In addition, owners can have access to wage lists. “We have insurance that covers the non -payment of a maximum of 75%. If a tenant rents out for six months and goes to all three, the owner can claim the other three months.”
