
Overnight, App for Booking Last-Minute Spaces with Local Hosts, Raises $2.5M - romarv
http://techcrunch.com/2016/02/25/overnight-the-app-for-booking-last-minute-spaces-with-local-hosts-closes-2-5m-seed-round
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dpflan
This seems like a good supplement for people who are already AirBnB hosts
because such people already have an intention to provide a space, therefore
they are inclined to have the space relatively prepared in advanced for a
future booking.

Perhaps the UX is difference on this app vs AirBnB, but what prevents someone
from using AirBnB for a last minute rental except that the host must be
prepared for such an event?

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elbigbad
It's hard to set up. There is instant booking on AirBnB, but mostly you have
to email people and have a conversation, introduce yourself, etc. and wait for
the host to get back to you. I have booked relatively last minute on AirBnB,
in fact one of my best experiences was at a "startup" hotel in San Francisco,
but by and large it's difficult and unreliable. Especially the "request to
book" thing. If I put in a request for same day accommodations, I can't put in
a second request for fear of both requests being accepted. And requests have,
I believe, 24 hours to be accepted. So in theory you could try to book this
morning for tonight, and not get a response until tomorrow. Or put in multiple
requests and they're all accepted and you're charged for many rooms.

And even if it works, you have to coordinate with the hosts on entrance,
parking, etc. at the last minute, which could be impossible.

Generally AirBnB isn't optimized for last-minute bookings in my experience.

When I need something super last minute, I can always rely on Hotel Tonight.
But something like this, a last-minute AirBnB without all the AirBnB hassles,
would be pretty nice.

~~~
dpflan
It seems that last-minute requests on AirBnB do not really succeed because the
hosts aren't prepared to respond in time. So, it's a psychological / cultural
issue because AirBnB was created without this 'last-minute' booking concept /
ability in mind (right?).

Even with this app, don't you still need to coordinate with the host for
entrance, parking, etc?

Also, the fact that multiple requests for the same accommodations by the same
user aren't consolidated and yield multiple chargings seems like a bug...

The hassle seem more related to what you stated, that AirBnB "isn't optimized
for last-minute bookings."

~~~
elbigbad
Definitely sounds like you would still need to coordinate with the host, but
perhaps the different culture and mindset makes people more cognizant of the
fact that they have to do the coordination quickly and be ready to do it.

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untog
So, how do they compete when AirBnb launches this feature in a few month's
time?

To be honest, this sounds like a nightmare for hosts. Hotels can do Hotels
Tonight because they have paid staff at the checkin desk 24/7 and usually some
spare, made up rooms. I'd have to get paid a lot to open up my spare room at a
moment's notice.

~~~
seibelj
I think this works better for people who don't want to schedule their entire
lives around an airbnb calendar. If you have a room / guest house to rent, and
you don't have hired help, you need to be there. Ruins the spontaneity of
life, like if I want to take a few days off to go on a getaway. I could see
this being useful as a seller.

However, as a buyer, it's risky. You need to trust that a room will always be
available with your expectations, and you won't know until the same day. It
would stress me out.

~~~
estefan
I'd be surprised if this is still around in 3 years. The things you mentioned
are the first that came to my mind. Plus, there'll probably be high churn
making it even worse for hosts because it'll probably mainly appeal to people
caught in a city at short notice, and probably short term in that case.

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detroitcoder
This is perfect for areas and buildings where Airbnb is banned. For example I
was renting out my apartment in Chicago for $250 a night until someone from
the building management company contacted me saying that rentals or subleases
< 1 month were not allowed in my building and I needed to take my place off
the site. I removed the listing and asked them how they knew that it was up.
Apparently they had an intern look through all of their properties on Airbnb
regularly and find all of the Airbnb listings for them. This app would allow
me hide my listing from building management but to be visible by verified
travelers. I am sure this wouldn't only be true of individual buildings, but
entire neighborhoods or cities where it may be banned.

~~~
dpflan
You have a window where you can use this app until the building management
catches on and adds this app to the ban list.

How does this hide your listing except by putting it on a less known service?

~~~
detroitcoder
For Airbnb all listings are public. In this app everything is private until
you let specific users be able to view it.

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MuEta
I've always thought that something like this would be very effective for
renting "space" rather than it necessarily being a full bedroom. The company
could let the apartment/house owner rent fold-able cots or something to
utilize, say, a living room as a sleeping space. There would be basic check
boxes like access to a shower, a kitchen, etc., but it is more of a free-form
lodging rather than renting a room.

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oliv__
My brain couldn't help but read it this way for a while: _App for booking
raises $2.5M overnight._

