Rentoid blog

A few weeks ago techcrunch broke the news that p2p accommodation startup Airbnb is in the final stages of closing a $100 million funding round which values the company at $1 billion. This comes after a phenomenal performance in 2010 with their service growing by 800% , booking more than 1.6 million rooms and securing $7.2 million in seed funding in December.

This is another piece of evidence that a new economy, driven by collaborative consumption, is on its way. And many people said that such a business model, could not, and would not work. Who would rent a bed out to complete strangers….? turns out lots of people would and do.

The future is not like the past. And we are glad about that here at rentoid.

Here is a presentation by one of the founders of Airbnb talking about how the company got started and the journey to where it is now - on the video inserted below:

Kudos to the guys at Airbnb.

PSFK CONFERENCE NYC 2011: Joe Gebbia from Piers Fawkes on Vimeo.

We’ve decided to make rentoid Free to list your items to rent. After a few years of trying to work out the best system, we think we’ve landed on what works best for everyone. It’s sometimes known as the ‘Freemium‘ model.

So what does this mean for you?

1. It is still free to join.
2. It is now free to list as many items as you like.
3. You still pay the rental fee to the owner of the item when you exchange the goods.

We will shortly be adding some very nice ‘paid only features which people renting out their goods - to make their items more attractive. But more on that in later posts.

Why have you done this?

It’s pretty simple from our perspective - we want to reduce the barriers that exist for peer to peer renting. What we are doing here is very important to us - personal in fact. While we have had steady growth, most people are slow to embrace the idea of renting instead of buying. (Not you - hey, your reading this!) Sure, we’ve got a loyal group of innovators, but a bigger community will benefit everyone using the site.

How will rentoid make money now?

Well thanks for caring, but that too is not important right now. It’s more important that we create as much value for our community as possible and that’s why we are reducing the barriers to come and play rentoid style.

So feel free to spread the word to your ‘less adventurous’ friends.

The rentoid team.