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How Rent Like a Champion Nailed Airbnb’s Business Model for Games and Events

What once called ‘eBay for vacation rentals’ is now a standalone brand and an inspiration for many startup ideas. We are talking about Airbnb here. Of course, the platform follows a similar business model as eBay’s (C2C), but the Peer-to-Peer model that Airbnb trails-into is about rentals, not selling stuff.

Any eCommerce platform working on this model allows its users to sell products and services to each other, and the platform makes money from the commissions it get from the users in return for facilitating the transactions. Inspired by this business model of eBay, Airbnb was able to build its brand name and a place in the market. Today, this $30 billion company is giant enough to land its founders on the Forbes cover. A business that nailed the old school C2C eCommerce into something more profitable, accessible, broader, and branded.

What Airbnb did with eBay’s model is a perfect example of how little innovations in the existing business models can land you up with more profitable undertakings and even let you create a completely new segment in the market.

In this article, we are going to analyze a similar innovation that ‘Rent like a Champion’ did in 2006. We will see how it nailed the Airbnb’s business model, created its own segment, and managed to not only succeed despite Airbnb’s prominent presence but also secured a $200,000 investment from Shark Tank panelists Mark Cuban and Chris Sacca for a 10% stake.

What is ‘Rent like a Champion’?

Each year, millions of Americans travel across the country to enjoy football games, golf tournaments, racing events, and other kinds of festivals. The obvious choice for them is to either book an expensive hotel or camp around, which might not be a possible choice for everyone.

‘Rent like a Champion’ lets you book a homestay nearby the prominent places famous for hosting games and sports events across America. Their value proposition is to let sports lovers travel across the country and enjoy the games, while the platform will take care of arranging a comfortable homestay for them. If you are traveling alone or with your family to a game event, it’s most likely that you will find a nearby place to stay on ‘Rent like a Champion’.

How similar ‘Rent like a Champion’ and Airbnb are?

‘Rent like a Champion’ is very similar to Airbnb in terms of the business model they follow. They observe the same peer-to-peer rental marketplace model, except they offer a completely different type of service. Where Airbnb presents itself as an affordable alternative to hotels, lodges, and resorts in holiday destinations around the globe, ‘Rent like a Champion’ focuses around American sporting events, college festivals, and other kinds of events. It offers homestays nearby prominent sporting events destinations. Except for this, everything is almost similar to that of Airbnb.

Catalog: Like Airbnb, you can find all kinds of dependent, independent, and furnished properties in their catalog

Booking Process: Like Airbnb, you need to place a booking request, pay online, and wait for the booking confirmation email

Listing fee: Like Airbnb, you can list your home free of cost on the platform

Monetization: Like Airbnb, both homeowners and guests pay service fees on each transaction they make or get on the website

What makes ‘Rent like a Champion’ unique?

When players like Airbnb and HomeAway are already dominating the market for home-sharing and vacation rentals, ‘Rent like a Champion’ places itself strategically in a gap that giants can’t fill. We are talking about small towns in the US, which host hundreds of sporting events and fests each year, and millions of people move around to attend them.

They started as a football events home-sharing platform to offer comfortable homestays to the college students and football fans around the event-destinations. Initially, they operated in small towns like South Bend, IN, and Ann Arbor, which hardly concerned the likes of Airbnb and HomeAway.

Eventually, it gave locals a way to make some extra cash renting their homes out, and fans got some affordable alternatives to expensive hotel rooms. Most of the time, there was not even a single hotel near these locations, which allowed the platform to best without any competition. Small college towns were strategic grounds for business where none of the giants and traditional hotels had any prominence.

Until 2015, ‘Rent like a Champion’ continued on its niched ground and focused only on football events and homestays around them. However, once they featured in Shark Tank and secured the investments, they finally expanded into other actions such as golf tournaments and racing events. Moving forward, they even collaborated with NASCAR tracks and became official homestay partners to their events.

Lessons to take from ‘Rent like a Champion’

Today, ‘Rent like a Champion’ has doubled the number of houses on its platforms. It’s experiencing a balanced growth on both sides of the platform: Hosts and Guests. Of course, the appearance on Shark Tank gave a massive marketing boost, but they were able to feature only because they had a great idea. It’s run by as few as 12 employees and yet has managed to become a prominent name among the American sports fans. We found the following takeaways from the company’s recent developments inspiring:

Micro-Niche: They knew the overall home-sharing market is not an easy nut to crack with Airbnb, HomeAway, and traditional hotels already there. Therefore, they focused on a micro-niche that no one had explored yet. Please note that they did not even cover all kinds of sporting events but only college football games in the early days. They did not go for a niche but a micro-niche.

Patience: They began in 2006 and served in a micro-niche until it was a good time to expand into other events after they secured investment and good exposure. They had an idea and dared to experiment with it on a small scale. It’s something that many entrepreneurs lack. We have to understand that not every successful business starts with a bang. They started small, but they aim to grow bigger with a presence at every popular event, from the Super Bowl to the Kentucky Derby eventually.

Focus on the core audience: Although they now have expanded into many other towns covering other kinds of sporting events, they still present their core business as a solution for college football games. You can take this cue from every successful business in history. For instance, Airbnb. Though Airbnb now also offers hotel rooms, luxury villas, and even palaces in its catalog, it still manages to attract its core audience – i.e. the people looking for affordable homestays at holiday destinations.

To summarize

The success of ‘Rent like a Champion’ is a clear indication that the peer-to-peer property rentals market still has tons of space for the new entrants. Why limit your idea with just home rentals? One can start an Airbnb for storage spaces or an Airbnb for car parking spaces. Besides, hundreds of many other niches have not seen any ventures yet. Everything that you can sell on an eCommerce site has the potential to fit into the rentals market as well. For example, you can follow the same peer-to-peer renting model and start a camping van rental, party supplies rental, event venue rental, co-working space rental, Vanity Vans rental, Ski supplies rental, Gym equipment rental, Construction equipment rentals, and many more. So, what’s your unique rental business idea?

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Why offering parking as a service is a must for business?

A fruitful business pulls in customers and keeps them returning. Everything about a business should focus on recurrent business. Regardless of having an extraordinary line-up of items and phenomenal assistance, only one out of every odd business accomplishes that objective. It’s because of one basic, yet genuinely basic issue: an absence of parking space.

Parking Business

One of the angles frequently disregarded by cafes, bistros, and numerous different businesses that depend on a consistent progression of customers is parking. To have a fruitful business, it is basic to discover an area that is furnished with enough parking to accommodate customers and workers.

Yet, the idea of parking doesn’t have to bring negative emotions in drivers, and it’s up to big business associations that deal with the parking cycle to change this. This change must start with a move in attitude. Pretty much every venture association that offers support will proclaim that giving their customers the best and most proficient experience conceivable is integral to their general mission.

The Solution

Business administrators can deal with their parking spaces by offering a valet parking administration. Basic parking space deficiencies can cause a lot of issues for businesses over the long haul. It’s imperative to augment the capability of your business by dealing with your parking spaces much the same as an eatery oversees seating for visitors. This is especially evident with regard to customers with disabilities. For certain individuals, it is essentially impossible to utilize something besides valet parking.

Where to Begin?

The most ideal approach to figure out what the genuine parking necessities are for your business is to direct research on comparable businesses around your area. Decide the volume of traffic during top hours to have a reference on how much parking space your business would require. In the event that you reach the decision you have an absence of parking, investigate offering valet administration prior to looking for another area. A parking deficiency is a significant issue, however, it is something that can be stayed away from or cured by dealing with your parking parcel by offering valet administration.

Parking as a Service

Parking as a Service, the proper idea to address this test, follows as a Service model that was gotten from the product and distributed computing industry. Innovation developments, for example, the Internet of Things (IoT) have set the focal point of acquiring repeating income on selling services instead of simply an item. Parking supervisors must track with this line of reasoning, where it isn’t sufficient to just tell drivers the number of spaces is accessible in some random part. To really serve the customer, solid bearing to open spaces is basic.

In this packed world full of countless individuals around us, we regularly get disappointed and restless with all the traffic and sticks on the streets. This speaks to how much parking is important to let the urban areas work well. Doesn’t make a difference what place it is, parking space has become a need of great importance. Indeed it shouldn’t be the obligations of the public authority or individuals, the parking issue should be taken care of insightfully by all. For instance, the businesses should offer Parking as a Service to every one of their representatives and customers.

The Stress of Parking Space

Businesses must realize it is important what occurs inside an office, for instance, free food tests in the shopping center, happy with seating at the air terminal, cooling in a corporate structure, and so forth Thus, it doesn’t make a difference if a portion of the offices are essential or not, you should offer such administrations for a superior standing and running of your business. One of such offices is having a parking space that guarantees the customers and the workers to not stress over their vehicle when they’re in your office.

Any association should thoroughly consider the crate and should consider growing the limits of administration. It is normally not expressed straightforwardly, however, involvement in an association likewise incorporates the area and time taken to enter the zone. Indeed, even the endeavors an individual needs to make to discover parking close by and leaving the premises are likewise checked, so the problem-free outing should be your inclination. The best part about this sort of Smart Parking innovation utilized inside the Parking as a Service model is that it benefits the two sides of the activity. Drivers are fulfilled, while parking space administrators and chiefs experience a huge number of focal points, for example,

Alerts for abuse or unpaid spaces, empowering snappier reaction

Expanded income through the capacity to value as per inhabitants elements

Visualization of parking information with exceptional bits of knowledge

Ability to produce income from accomplices showed by means of omnidirectional LED signs introduced on light posts, on top of the parking direction data

Regardless of anything else, there aren’t numerous reasons why parking administrators shouldn’t organize a proficient parking answer for their association. Parking as a Service expands the genuine ethics of business pioneers hoping to satisfy the people that will go through cash at their office. Obviously, the primary spot to begin similarly as adjusting to this model is using insightful and progressed parking the executives’ arrangements that encourage an easy to understand, gainful experience for every one of those included.

Conclusion

Smart parking the board arrangement can be found wherever these days, yet you need to pick the best one. How a customer sees your business relies on everything even upon the basic segment of the parking. Accordingly, a business should never bargain with that and should zero in on adding a standout amongst other parking the executives’ framework in its space. For this, you have to follow the Parking as a Service module, as this suggests you need to offer it in the most ideal manner conceivable and not only for giving it.

If you have any further questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to us at contact@rentcubo.com.

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A Study: The Genius of Multi-Storey Car Parks

Cities are getting cramped

Nearly a third of the entire world’s population is predicted to live in cities – urban areas by 2050. Cities offer better standard of living, better healthcare facilities, lot of job and business opportunities. When most of us move to big cities, they tend to get cramped for space. This causes a lot of headache for city planners – especially as they got to accommodate more people, more vehicles – meaning cities need better and smarter infrastructure design solutions. And multi storey car parks – though not an old concept – fits right into any cramped city.

Top Trends in Parking Lot Management

Multi-storey car parks solves many problems

With subways and roads going underground, there’s only one way car parks can grow – upwards. There are numerous rewards for constructing a multi storey vehicle parking unit from the ground up. Here are five reasons why they work.

#1 Lack of space

Multi-storey parking facilities can store a lot more vehicles than any other parking space. If we combine automated ramps and lifts which can lift cars and park them without the need of a valet, then we can accommodate more vehicles in such parking spaces.

#2 Reduce traffic congestion

Because multi storey car parks are built from the ground up, they do not occupy too much ground space to accommodate a large quantity of vehicles. Leaving more space for walking strips and roads. This reduces traffic congestion.

#3 Better parking management

Even at multi-storey parking facilities which are operated manually – no robots or automated ramps or lifts – valet drivers are much more efficient and quick in parking and retrieving vehicles. Thereby allowing for better management of car parking facilities.

#4 Better suited for technological upgrades

Modern day parking facilities are better equipped to install cutting edge parking technological solutions – such as IoT enabled sensors to highlight empty parking spaces and parking management apps with in-built navigation which takes the car owner directly to the empty slot.

A guide to choose the Best Parking Lot Management Software

#5 Safe from floods and heavy rains

Because multi-storey parking facilities are built from the ground up, they survive better against heavy floods and rains. As global warming affects major cities – especially the ones which are close to rivers and oceans – multi-storey parking facilities not only stand strong against natural calamities, but also protect vehicles from getting damaged. These facilities can also offer shelter to people during drastic times as well.

Parking spaces are difficult to manage – the right software can solve most problems

Have you used Airbnb’s website or mobile app to book a room or a home for vacation? Isn’t the platform easy to use, find properties, and pay securely? This is what we have brought with RentPark. RentPark is an Airbnb clone designed specifically to manage parking spaces of all sizes in countries such as America, Europe, UK, and Australia. Here are some of the features of RentPark:

An Affordable Parking Solution: Manage all slots and multiple facilities with RentPark

Keep Track Of Everything: Easily sift through vehicle license plate numbers, visitor names and tags on the easy-to-use dashboard

Managing Visitor Parking: Say goodbye to papers and clipboards. Allow users to register from any device within seconds

Real-Time Navigation: Allow users to re-book slot(s) with just a few clicks or touches and let the app guide them to the parking space via live mapping

Manage Time Limits For Visitors: Set time slots for any day of the week. You can schedule a variety of time limits for different time slots.

Manage Free and Paid Parking Hours: You get complete control to manage free or fee based parking to match demand.

Dynamic Pricing: Demands don’t stay the same. The app allows you to set a variety of prices to cash in on weekday or weekend/holiday demands.

Inventory Management: A single location with a few slots or multiple locations with varied slot sizes, RentPark allows you to manage all your inventory on a single dashboard.

One Touch Payment: Make is easy and secure for users to avail parking slots and pay you with one touch.

Buying or investing on software solutions is a tough ask, especially with multiple platforms offering similar features.

Check out the LIVE DEMO of RentPark on web and mobile platforms

That is why we have built a LITE version of RentPark which can be downloaded for FREE. Experience the platform before you buy it. At Rentcubo, we offer round-the-clock technical support to help you from the day you buy the platform till the day you take it live.

Download RentPark LITE now to experience the platform inside out RentPark is completely customizable, use your brand logo, colors, and fonts on both the web and mobile apps. Connect to us on Whatsapp and ask all your questions about RentPark. We are happy to help. At Rentcubo, we begin with you.

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With the current state of parking, upgradation of Parking Facility is a requirement.  https://rentcubo.com/upgrading-car-parking-facility/

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Why it is Time to Upgrade your Parking Facility?

The current state of parking and innovation

If we look at what entails our commute, it is very interesting to see factors which have to work in unison to make transportation easy. From the technologies in our cars, technologies to build and maintain road networks, fuel station and charging grids, and parking spaces, all these factors tied up neatly forms a smooth transportation network.

If we look closely into each factor, we can clearly see adoption of technologies to boost performance. Just look at the geeky tech available in our cars – auto pilots, reverse parking sensors, night vision driving, auto parking, and the list is endless.

Top Trends in Parking Lot Management

Let us look at technologies helping our cities and countries to build better roads. There is cutting edge software being put to use while designing roads today. It takes into account of traffic density and other factors to build roads of the right size and design. Even the materials being used today to build roads have been upgraded – new chemical compounds are being used to build roads, where rainwater can directly seep into roads and then onto the canals underneath it.

Fuel stations and charging networks are peppered across city roads and motorways everywhere. With better access to fuel – be it gasoline or electric – we can better plan our trips saving time and money.

A guide to choose the Best Parking Lot Management Software

Now, let’s come to the crux of our argument – parking spaces. You see, parking spaces have become the dinosaurs of the transportation network. Not many parking spaces – outdoor or commercialized indoor parking spaces – are upgraded with equipments and technologies for seamless management. Why is that? Too expensive? Not much information available about best practices? May be both.

Are you keeping pace with innovations in the parking industry?

As a commercial parking space operator, you are in an industry which will stay in demand for as long as vehicles ply on our roads. If managed properly, you can generate a lot of income, consistently. Today, car users have less time to find parking spaces, even less time to get out of the car and pay for spaces. The right software can help you change the way you conduct business and also change the way your users interact with your services.

Factors which are necessary in today’s parking spaces

The best car parking management software should be run on a table or laptop at your end, and allow users to access it via a simple mobile app on the other end.

Allowing users to find empty parking spots and guide automatically

Car users open your parking management app and they find the nearest parking spot. They tap on the location and the app immediately starts guiding them to the location – the empty parking spot. Seamless and easy. And users pay for spaces through their phone. The right software should allow you to offer these services.

Customer data management

The software on your end should offer all user data and performance metrics on a single dashboard. So that you learn to understand and forecast demand. May be even charge more during peak demand and less during slack hours. Consumer data management is going to change the way parking management industry operates.

Your marketing strategies and efforts neatly tied together

When you market your business via emails, social media, or search engines, the software should allow you to create and deploy such activities within the software itself. And help you track the performance of each marketing effort and modify strategies when necessary. SEO, PPC, Social Media, Newsletters via email will become mainstream marketing platforms for parking management in the future. The right software should help you to plan and track marketing activities.

Which parking management software is best?

Have you used Airbnb’s website or mobile app to book a room or a home for vacation? Isn’t the platform easy to use, find properties, and pay securely? This is what we have brought with RentPark. RentPark is an Airbnb clone designed specifically to manage parking spaces of all sizes in countries such as America, Europe, UK, and Australia. Here are some of the features of RentPark:

An Affordable Parking Solution: Manage all slots and multiple facilities with RentPark

Keep Track Of Everything: Easily sift through vehicle license plate numbers, visitor names and tags on the easy-to-use dashboard

Managing Visitor Parking: Say goodbye to papers and clipboards. Allow users to register from any device within seconds

Real-Time Navigation: Allow users to re-book slot(s) with just a few clicks or touches and let the app guide them to the parking space via live mapping

Manage Time Limits For Visitors: Set time slots for any day of the week. You can schedule a variety of time limits for different time slots.

Manage Free and Paid Parking Hours: You get complete control to manage free or fee based parking to match demand.

Dynamic Pricing: Demands don’t stay the same. The app allows you to set a variety of prices to cash in on weekday or weekend/holiday demands.

Inventory Management: A single location with a few slots or multiple locations with varied slot sizes, RentPark allows you to manage all your inventory on a single dashboard.

One Touch Payment: Make is easy and secure for users to avail parking slots and pay you with one touch.

Buying or investing on software solutions is a tough ask, especially with multiple platforms offering similar features.

Check out the LIVE DEMO of RentPark on web and mobile platforms

That is why we have built a LITE version of RentPark which can be downloaded for FREE. Experience the platform before you buy it. At Rentcubo, we offer round-the-clock technical support to help you from the day you buy the platform till the day you take it live.

Download RentPark LITE now to experience the platform inside out

RentPark is completely customizable, use your brand logo, colors, and fonts on both the web and mobile apps. Connect to us on Whatsapp and ask all your questions about RentPark. We are happy to help. At Rentcubo, we begin with you.

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Airport Parking needs Loyalty Programs

Airports generate income from three sources

With air travel getting cheaper, more destinations are being added in developing economies – especially in Asia. More destinations means more airports. Airports generate income from three sources:

Surcharges levied as part of the ticket fare

Income generated through retail spaces inside the airport premises

Income generated from parking services

Transport hubs such as airports and subways are prime locations to generate a lot of retail based income. As more people drive to airports, they constantly pay parking charges. Come to think of it, why do airports treat these three sources of income as separate entities.

Aren’t the same people who pay for parking, spend money at retail stores inside the airport, and pay for tickets to fly?

Why don’t airports create loyalty programs and tie all three income sources and reward passengers who frequent the airport and spend money? This is the crux of our argument in this post.

Loyalty programs tied with parking facilities

Loyalty programs reward passengers for spending time and money at airports. The best thing is, airports have no competition. As the primary reason people access airports is to fly. So, it makes more sense to assess, analyze, and reward entire spending cycles of select passengers who access the airport frequently. A solid case has been made and the data is in – the need for airport parking customer loyalty programs has never been greater.

This way you collect more data – leading to better marketing insights

The general aim of airports is to keep customers spending more time inside the airport. The more time passengers spend inside the airport, more the chances of them spending money. To enable this, every airport’s marketing department needs to study it’s passenger behaviour and cater to the needs of passengers. The idea is to create a seamless process of touchpoints to influence passenger purchasing decisions.

See the top trends in parking lot management

The first interaction passengers have at an airport is at the parking terminal. Airport apps should allow passengers to use in-built navigation to drive straight to the empty parking lot and pay via a mobile device. This is the right time to send a pop up message on their phone to thank them for parking and to reward them with sales coupons or codes.

A recent survey shows that the number one reason a passenger might spend more is that they receive an offer in advance. To achieve this, the entire airport’s communication platform should sync with the airport’s consumer facing mobile application. This is how you drive real-time contextual loyalty.

An airport parking customer loyalty program is the perfect solution for linking loyal customer rewards to airport terminal outlets and services by facilitating passenger connection and engagement. When all three ends are tied together, airports can understand user behavior in a much better and a detailed manner. In the age of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, consumer behavior data is a gold mine waiting to be tapped.

Loyalty programs helps airports boost revenue

When the parking process is made easy – with in app navigation and on-the-go payments etc. – airports will boost parking revenue. And when parking services is stitched with retail spending via a loyalty program, airports tend to increase revenue from ancillary sources as well.

A comprehensive guide to choose the best parking lot management software

Managing airports is a big task. So many entities and services need to be tied up together. As we start rewarding consumers right from the parking lot, it is necessary to integrate the most modern parking lot software which can run side-by-side an existing airport managing software platform.

The right software to manage parking lots at airports

Have you used Airbnb’s website or mobile app to book a room or a home for vacation? Isn’t the platform easy to use, find properties, and pay securely? This is what we have brought with RentPark. RentPark is an Airbnb clone designed specifically to manage parking spaces of all sizes in countries such as America, Europe, UK, and Australia. Here are some of the features of RentPark:

An Affordable Parking Solution: Manage all slots and multiple facilities with RentPark

Keep Track Of Everything: Easily sift through vehicle license plate numbers, visitor names and tags on the easy-to-use dashboard

Managing Visitor Parking: Say goodbye to papers and clipboards. Allow users to register from any device within seconds

Real-Time Navigation: Allow users to re-book slot(s) with just a few clicks or touches and let the app guide them to the parking space via live mapping

Manage Time Limits For Visitors: Set time slots for any day of the week. You can schedule a variety of time limits for different time slots.

Manage Free and Paid Parking Hours: You get complete control to manage free or fee based parking to match demand.

Dynamic Pricing: Demands don’t stay the same. The app allows you to set a variety of prices to cash in on weekday or weekend/holiday demands.

Inventory Management: A single location with a few slots or multiple locations with varied slot sizes, RentPark allows you to manage all your inventory on a single dashboard.

One Touch Payment: Make is easy and secure for users to avail parking slots and pay you with one touch.

Buying or investing on software solutions is a tough ask, especially with multiple platforms offering similar features.

Check out the LIVE DEMO of RentPark on web and mobile platforms

That is why we have built a LITE version of RentPark which can be downloaded for FREE. Experience the platform before you buy it. At Rentcubo, we offer round-the-clock technical support to help you from the day you buy the platform till the day you take it live.

Download RentPark LITE now to experience the platform inside out

RentPark is completely customizable, use your brand logo, colors, and fonts on both the web and mobile apps. Connect to us on Whatsapp and ask all your questions about RentPark. We are happy to help. At Rentcubo, we begin with you.

[shirley1us]

Want to Clone Airbnb? Learn from Negative Airbnb Reviews

In this post: we look at bad experiences people have had at properties listed on Airbnb. And we collect learning for anyone wanting to start an Airbnb like platform.

What are Airbnb reviews

Airbnb is a platform built to bring people – service providers and travelers – together. The idea of spending a lot of money for short term accommodations at hotels was proving extremely expensive, and Airbnb capitalized on the lack of supply of affordable accommodations.

A guide to creating your own Airbnb with RentRoom – An Airbnb clone script

Ever since Airbnb has generated a lot of traction. The platform has over 5 million listings and is present in over 190 countries. It couldn’t grow this well if it didn’t allow its assets (hosts and guests) to review each other and pay attention to what they say.

What do negative reviews mainly contain or complain about

Airbnb allows guests to rate and review their stay, building trust for future users and rewarding hardworking hosts with positive reviews. However, not all reviews remain positive. There have been accounts of reviews about nasty property owners, poorly managed homes, and lack of basic amenities.

The main discrepancy travelers find is that some properties don’t look like the photos in the listing at all.

An American woman had a terribly bad experience with an Airbnb listing, that she had to pay a lot of money for a poor property. She was in a big city, and couldn’t find a hotel to stay, and had to book a trailer for the night at $270 per night. The trouble was, she looked past the bad reviews as she had nowhere to stay.

When she arrived, she was flabbergasted by the condition of the trailer and the lack of basic amenities. The innards smelled full of meth, there was no door lock and a part of the trailer was torn open at the back.

When this was taken to the owner’s notice, the property owner arrived early in the morning, woke the guests up and demanded for a positive review. This is an absolute nightmare, and doesn’t bode well for Airbnb as a neutral, trustworthy platform.

This was brought to Airbnb’s notice and was asked for a refund, and rightfully so. Airbnb replied that refunding the amount was not possible due to the host’s strict cancellation policy. Frustrated, the guest’s boyfriend took to Twitter to highlight Airbnb’s ignorance and lack of empathy.

Airbnb head of trust and risk-management Nick Shapiro told Inc. magazine, “These types of [negative] experiences are extremely rare.” Seventy-five percent of Airbnb users post reviews, and upward of 90 percent of those reviews are positive. “We’ve refunded the guest and removed this listing,” Shapiro said. “We are very sorry this experience did not go well. We want all of our users to have positive experiences. If anyone shows up at a home and it’s not as advertised, we ask that they reach out to us, and we will refund or rebook them.”

What is Airbnb’s refund or re-booking policy

Shouldn’t guests be treated with empathy and provide adequate resolutions – such as a refund or a rebooking? What does Airbnb’s policy on cancellation say about all this?

This is verbatim from Airbnb’s website about refund guidelines:

Eligible travel issues

Situations that may be eligible for a refund under this policy generally fall into one of three categories:

The host fails to provide reasonable access to the booked listing.

The listing is misrepresented (ex: number of bedrooms, location, lacks promised amenities).

The listing isn’t generally clean, is unsafe, or there’s an animal in the listing that wasn’t disclosed prior to booking.

Airbnb will either provide you with a refund or use reasonable efforts to find and book another comparable accommodation for any unused nights left on your reservation. The amount of any refund will depend on the nature of the travel issue.

There is more to this to get a refund. Airbnb is more than happy to help guests out with handing out refunds where possible. To be eligible for a refund, the guests need to do the following.

Airbnb wants guests to contact them to bring the travel issue to attention. It says “if you notice the issue during check-in, contact us within 24 hours. If the issue occurs during your stay, contact us right away. We’ll ask you to provide photographs or other documentation that show what you’re experiencing.”

What can we learn from negative reviews

The first lesson to be learnt is to allow ratings and reviews and make it visible for both travelers and hosts on each listing. A good Airbnb clone script will allow you to do this. The second and the most important factor is to pay attention to reviews – especially negative reviews – on your platform and on social media sites such as Twitter.

Enough resources should be dedicated to address negative reviews, solve them and highlight the solutions – this helps you to build trust with both your assets (hosts and guests).

Creating your own Airbnb like business

The founders of Airbnb had to sit and write code to create their flagship website. And they have perfected and innovated the platform since the day of launch. So, if you want to create a business like Airbnb, then there is no need for you or your team to sit and write codes.

Learn how much it costs to build an Airbnb clone

Like any website template which has to be created once and can be used any number of times. Similarly, Airbnb’s fundamental code can be cloned and be used any number of times. The best thing about using a clone script is that it comes packed with features which would take a large team and a lot of time to build.

RentRoom is one such Airbnb clone which has been written with all the features, security, and data privacy. You don’t have to hire a team nor spend a lot of money, all you gotta do is download the clone script, install and customize it to your heart’s content. Visit Rentcubo to know more.

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Importance of Guest Satisfaction Surveys For Vacation Rental Property Owners

Guest satisfaction surveys are utilized by entrepreneurs to check how the organization is seen by the supporters of the administration. Sorting out a survey is the initial phase in evaluating customer response to your administrations. Finishing by making required enhancements assists with guaranteeing your future development and achievement. You can set up a survey on your Hotel site, enlist a survey organization, or give your customers polls to return face to face or electronically. Visitor satisfaction in the friendliness business is critical. Cheerful hotel visitors are probably going to come back again and perhaps suggest the hotel.

The encounters that your visitors have are going to last far longer than their stay with you – which is the reason you have to organize the appraisal of their satisfaction. Even in the wake of investing so much energy, cash, and endeavors, associations experience a couple of customers sneaking away. Lately, it has become an essential apparatus for upgrading customer joy and dependability.

Ahh, excursion! Simply hearing the word invokes warm and fluffy sentiments of opportunity, remissness, and general satisfaction. At the point when we think about their next excursion, we anticipate a short time in our lives wherein everything works out as expected, permitting us to unwind and make the most of our extra time with our friends and family. As a get-away rental supplier, it’s dependent upon you to guarantee your visitors’ encounters satisfy their hopes – to say the very least. In any case, doing so isn’t as troublesome as it sounds.

Even the most faithful customers can leave you quickly

Customer devotion, as it’s been said, can’t be gotten, it should be procured. This is no advanced science, customers have an excessive number of decisions and your misfortune is another person’s benefit. A fantastic method to hold your customers is to ensure a customer satisfaction survey is conveyed and any issue identified with the equivalent ought to be quickly tended to.

It causes you to separate your hotel from others

As a customer in the event that you needed to buy a TV and you have done all your examination, gone through hours before the PC and made notes of the highlights you need in your TV lastly inferred that you need to purchase brand A. At that point you visit your companion and let them know energetically that you have limited brand A, abruptly your companion says, “Naah, brand B is better. I have utilized it and they have a superb customer administration.” Which brand do you figure you will wind up purchasing? The appropriate response is straight, brand B of course, the same goes for rental stays. Customer satisfaction is a separating factor that encourages your hotel to stand tall in the opposition.

Positive marking can be accomplished by great customer administration

The significance of customer satisfaction ought to never be questioned. It assumes a significant job while arranging the advertising technique of an association particularly with regards to marking. As referenced beforehand buyers these days have gone advanced, independent of their age. Web-based media is assuming a vital function in marking exercises. An unsatisfied customer is allowed to communicate his/her view on a medium that is available to a huge number of individuals. One negative survey or criticism can harm the brand. Henceforth it is critical to ensure that the remarks the shopper leaves are consistently certain. At a later stage, organizations can utilize positive remarks or inputs as examples of overcoming adversity or tributes to advance the brand.

Happy customers are bringing customers back

Fulfilled and faithful customers spread a positive verbal exchange as well as hold returning to the stay they like in spite of numerous decisions offered to them. Likewise, customer satisfaction shows in the income of an association. Customer’s feelings (good or negative) can influence the brand’s esteem.

Make customer experience closer to home

At the point when organizations understand the significance of customer satisfaction, they ensure each miserable customer is reached face to face. There are different business systems that organizations offer so as to change over a miserable customer into a glad one. Offering vouchers or markdown is a quick solution to fix the harm done. In any case, if the excursion rental property truly cares about their customers, they will routinely convey customer satisfaction surveys to the customers. For any association estimating customer satisfaction should be a propensity, impossible Measuring customer satisfaction ought to turn into your day by day propensity.

Know where to improve

A few proprietors may utilize customer satisfaction surveys after they experience a drop in appointment volume. It might be past the point where it is possible to charm back benefactors whenever they’ve gone, so survey your customers when business is acceptable. Ask how your costs contrast with your rivals. In the event that you get overpowering reactions that your stay is more costly, you’ll have an occasion to change valuing or producing techniques to be serious. On the off chance that you charge more since you have a predominant office, add that detail in your publicizing efforts. Surveys reveal an assortment of inadmissible regions, for example, inconsiderate laborers, late conveyance, and a site that is hard to explore. Making changes before your standing is discolored can lessen the negative effect on your remains.

Also, read this interesting article on the best attributes of AirBnB you ought to have in your vacation rental software.

Put yourself in your guest’s shoes

Start with this straightforward inquiry: If I was a visitor remaining here unexpectedly, what might I need to know? OK be pondering where to purchase goods, or go out to supper? OK need a guide with trekking trails or fishing docks plainly checked? Is there anything you’d be irritated with, either with the property itself or the territory around it? Surrendering visitors ahead about incredible activities (or things to look out for) in a visitor guide or email will begin their stay on the correct foot, and make them unquestionably all the more sympathetic if inconveniences crop up.

If you have doubts or any further questions, please feel free to reach out to us at contact@rentcubo.com.

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Sharing Economy is Changing the Short Term Rental Industry

Many economists believe that the economy as we have come to know it will seamlessly merge with the modern day sharing economy at some point in the near future. At the center of this transition is Airbnb. Started by two roommates in San Francisco. They put out an airbed mattress and offered free breakfast to travelers.

Considering how expensive SF was (and still is today), the two roommates got themselves bookings in a flurry. They brought on another mate of theirs to code a platform and allow anyone to list their room or home to earn extra income. This is the power of sharing economy.

Where are we headed?

The world will look different in the future. There are already companies working to disrupt the real estate industry as we come to know it today – both residential and commercial real estate. Instead of buying or leasing office spaces or residences, we all will just become members of a large platform – which will allow us access to any office or residence across the city, state, country or even the world. This is the future, and it looks darn interesting.

In a perfect sharing economy, people will make effective utilization of resources. In a perfect sharing economy, it will be platforms who will own most real estate and we the people will end up subscribing for spaces. Seems bleak? Not at all. We will still be able to own properties, but imagine changing office spaces and moving anywhere seamlessly. The sharing economy won’t mean that people move aimlessly, but it means, we don’t have to be bogged down by expensive leases or pathetic real estate choices. At present, change is taking place at a rapid pace. The question we need to ask is this – what will the future look like?

It is futile to try and fight.” Rajeev Menon, Marriott’s COO for Asia Pacific (excluding Greater China), agrees: “This is a business model that’s here to stay.”

What does the transition look like?

The transition – sharing economy – will gather pace and will impact major economies first. Today, categorizing the world in to developed and developing world seems to be too old school. Economists say that Asia will be the recipient of cutting edge innovation in the sharing economy. Besides, business and millennial travel will change forever. Hotels will start to operate as lean bed and breakfasts and equip themselves to change in a much better way. And a lot of new business – such as sharing cars, parking spaces, storage spaces – will crop up in fast growing economies.

A lot of employment will be generated at the small and medium scale level, and if governments act quickly by creating an encouraging atmosphere for such businesses to flourish, then a lot of tax income can be generated – which means boosting local economies.

Growth is gaining pace

The short term rental economy is growing fast. The entire local hosting (short term rentals) industry generated about $169 billion in 2018 – per Skift. HomeAway had predicted that the short term rental industry would grow anywhere between two to four times – nearly as fast as the global economy. HomeAway claims that 82% of its current users prefer local hosts than fancy hotels. Given this acceleration, it is hardly surprising that investors are flocking to the short-term rental sector.

Asia at the center of short term rental innovation

Asia is touted to be at the center of sharing economy’s fruits of labor. Nielsen research has found that the Asia-Pacific residents were the most willing in the world to participate in sharing, with 81% willing to rent or share others’ assets and 78% willing to rent or share their own (vs. global figures of 66% and 68%), and of the top 10 countries most likely to do so, four are in Asia: China, the Philippines, Thailand, and India. And with 135 million outbound travelers (UN World Tourism Organization), China is well positioned to influence global trends.

Millennials are changing the travel industry

Business travel is now opening up to the short term rental market. With more such aggregators – like Airbnb – pop up, more the chances of businesses spending their money on affordable, innovative local hosts than large hotel chains. The Global Business Travel Association claims that in 2016 alone, business travelers spent nearly $1.3 trillion – with an average growth of 7% year-on-year.

Airbnb and its major competitor Booking.com have created services exclusively catering to business travelers. Offering self check in, free WiFi, flexible booking and cancellation policies among others. American Express Global Business Travel has already partnered with Airbnb to facilitate expensing.

How to learn from Airbnb and create your own Airbnb like platform

Today, the newer generation of business travelers are combining business and leisure travel together and act as the main catalyst for short term rentals.

Condé Nast Traveler claims that nearly 8 out of 10 millennial business travelers wish to stay at short term rentals than at hotels. This trend is visible in the world’s fastest growing economies.

Evolving Business Models – create your own rental economy

The short term rental practice is now being applied to other aspects of personal and business lives. It’s not just renting rooms or villas, today small businesses are offering coworking spaces, car parking slots at stadiums, malls, and self storage spaces in big cities such as New York and London. This growth is mainly due to two reasons:

One – the existing services – such as hotel chains – have turned out to be expensive, pushing the economy to create innovative, low cost supplies – like short term rentals. Two – easy, affordable access to technology platforms – which enable anyone to create a platform and disrupt any part of the global economy has also played a major part.

We have crafted the perfect Airbnb clone for precisely this purpose – to enable anybody to create their own sharing economy. At Rentcubo – we have taken everything that is good from Airbnb and have recreated the platform to suit multiple businesses in a shared economy. Rent out homes, car parking spaces, coworking desks, or self storage spaces. Rentcubo is designed to work just like Airbnb. Rent anything, rent like Airbnb.

Check out how you can create your own Airbnb like platform in your local economy here

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Self Driven Cars are About to Change the Parking Industry

Snippet: in this post we look at the impact of self driven cars on parking spaces across the world. We also look at how close we are to a self driving world.

What are self driven cars?

A car which can drive itself through the use of road and traffic sensing technologies such as RADAR, LIDAR, and cameras. Lot of regulations bind this category of transportation. The idea is simple, human drivers have a rhythm. Not all of us drive the same way. This alone costs a lot of traffic issues.

The belief with self driven cars is that, if every car drives diligently, similarly and is equipped with technologies to sense obstacles (other vehicles or people on the road), it would lead to a more predictable and smooth movement of vehicles – which ultimately reduces delays, jams, and saves energy (gas and electricity).

Eliminating the human driver means that car makers can accommodate another passenger in the driver’s seat. This means we can accommodate more people in cars, and in fact reduce the number of cars on the road. A win-win situation.

Who all are working on self driven cars?

For the past decade, many companies and universities are working on the self driving concept. Though there are very few states or counties which allow self driven cars to ply the roads legally, mostly they are restricted to campus or track driving today.

The closest we can get to a self driven car is the auto pilot mode on Tesla cars. Truth be told, this lane following and radar guided vehicle (the one in front) following technology is not pioneered by Tesla. This was available a long time ago in luxury cars such as Mercedes, Volvo, Jaguar et al.

Google (Waymo) and supposedly Apple are both working on self driven cars for a long time. Why would a search engine an a phone maker get into making cars, you wonder? Let me paint the picture for you. Once cars become driverless, you and I will get into our cars and just sit there, until we are dropped off. What are we supposed to do sitting idly?

This is what companies like Apple and Google are good at. Engaging people with hardware and content. Apple would want you to watch movies on Apple TV or listen to podcasts or music on iTunes. Whereas Google would love you to search the web, read, watch YouTube videos.

You are a captive audience in their car, they want to sell more products and services, that’s Apple’s and Google’s endgame. Or we could just turn our laptops on, and start working – right in the car.

How close are we to get self driven cars on roads?

Now that car makers and tech companies are getting there, they would have to convince the law makers that self driven cars are safe. A lot of money is being spent to spruce up the tech platform and making it hack-proof. Some industry analysts say that self driving will become ubiquitous in the next decade.

Why cities need smart parking – read this interesting guide

Advantages of owning self driven cars

Here are some advantages of owning a self driven car:

No more driving in the city

No more yelling at people who cut across

You get more time to be productive – start work early, come home early

No hassle of finding parking spots. The car finds one by itself

Send the car back home. Make better use of your car

Accommodate an extra passenger. Or more luggage space

Rest or sleep during long distance travel

Here are some advantages for city managers and planners:

Well mannered driving all round

Fewer accidents

Easy to plan roads and parking spaces

Fewer cars plying on the road

Cut down on CO2 emissions

Less spending on traffic maintenance

Do self driven cars need parking at all?

If the car can be summoned back home, then what’s the need for parking spaces? Possible, but not practical. If cars keep going back and forth between home and office, home and shopping centers etc. the whole point of reducing traffic congestion goes out of the window.

Companies like Uber are investing heavily on driver-less cars. Does this mean that private car ownership will become a thing of the past? Not necessarily. If people don’t have to drive, and can summon a car whenever they want, then privately owned driver-less cars are more appealing than hiring an Uber or Lyft every day. While such apps have transformed the sharing economy and pioneered the concept of Mobility as a Service (MaaS), people would still continue to buy cars. Hence, vehicles would still need parking solutions.

What self driven cars need is smart parking solutions

When cars become smart, they need to be part of the traffic grid as well as a the main parking grid. If this is accomplished, then your car drops you off at work, and it already knows where to park – and maybe find a parking space with charging and charge itself. This is why governments and communities are talking about implementing smart car parking solutions.

Self driving cars will not only change the way people commute, but it will change – and force – governments to change the way cities are designed. Today, cities and counties need to design city roads and parking spaces for a world of the next 10 to 20 years. The time is right to implement smart parking solutions.

Check out the best car parking technologies which are trending

The Airbnb of car parking is here

We all know that Airbnb is a prime example of a business which has excelled at allowing people to share resources on-the-go and make money from it. What we have done is take the Airbnb platform, clone it, and redesign it to suit the parking spaces industry.

What you get is an Airbnb like platform where parking lot businesses can register and sell slots on-the-go. Not only that, the in-built map allows drivers to check empty parking spaces and let the app guide them to the desired location.

Users can pay within the app itself, making the entire experience completely paperless. Visit Rentcubo.com for detailed info.

Here is a comprehensive guide to choose the best parking lot management software

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Growing Your Business With Rental Scheduling Software

Regardless of whether they lease furniture, party supplies, or vehicles, rental businesses need to keep steady over their appointments for quick client conveyance. While dealing with a few distinct requests at the same time sounds overpowering, do it easily with rental scheduling software. Rental scheduling software comes furnished with a huge number of highlights to help spare you time, cash, and exertion. It offers a simple to explore online store noticeable to the two clients and rental business proprietors. With the online store, your clients can peruse your rental list openly and place orders from anyplace whenever. The software additionally gives clients an outline of the accessibility of a thing by seeing scheduled openings and appointments all the while so you never need to manage clashing appointments. It furthermore spares your clients from the experience of putting orders by means of calls. With a devoted rental arrangement, explain the entirety of your scheduling issues in a consistent way. Here are the means by which the rental scheduling software helps your business:

1. It empowers you to be online 24 hours per day

Let’s be honest! Individuals place orders when it’s advantageous for them, not for you or your business. Discerning businesses plan around the clients’ needs and consistently let them make major decisions. This is the reason heading to distant areas for rentals is rapidly turning into a relic of days gone by. Online stores are presently extremely popular in business as clients look for openness and non-stop accessibility. Ordinary business hours end by 5 pm. This is actually when a great many people get liberated from work and submit their requests. Rental scheduling software includes an online store that is live for the duration of the day. This will likewise imply that you can get appointments relentlessly.

2. It rearranges appointments with an accessibility schedule

Have you ever needed to battle with disappointed clients over clashing reservations? Wash your hands off of it with a unique accessibility schedule. The accessibility schedule shows accessibility concerning time for every one of your things so clients can book things tranquil. Try not to sit around idly running through crowds of request receipts or spreadsheets to reserve a spot. Mechanize the difficult work of horrendously obliging appointments. All things being equal, empower clients to put orders in a couple of snaps.

3. It decreases client flake-oats with updates

Regularly, customers book rental things yet don’t come to get them from the store. While this could imply that they’ve adjusted their perspective on their request, commonly they’ve recently disregarded the request. Such client flake-outs hurt your income and pre-involve your stock when it might have been leased to other possible clients. It very well may be dreary to send manual suggestions to endless clients all at once. Rental scheduling software mechanizes the cycle for you. It conveys programmed alarms to your clients daily before the normal lease date to help them to remember their appointments. This likewise gives clients a feeling of being cared for and develops a good picture of your image in their eyes. You can even tweak the alarm messages and incorporate the data you regard pertinent. Moreover, such cautions aren’t simply confined to your client base. You can even send them out to workers so they can get the things all together before a client comes to get them.

4. It gives you savvy information on different parts of your business

Rental businesses battle with outrageous rivalry. This is the reason you have to endeavor to be the best in your specialty. This interest requires valuable experiences about your business execution so you can outfit it towards predictable advancement. Rental scheduling software helps with this by offering investigates resource use and client information. It likewise shows information for your mainstream rental things and rental income. That is not all; to make things simpler, it highlights graphical reports to furnish you with a superior perspective on your organization’s exhibition. With rental scheduling software, banners both fail to meet expectations and famous items so you can calibrate your stock levels as per client requests. You can likewise pull up things that are expected for return or support initially. This streamlines complex business information for you so can plan like a genius. Likewise, you don’t need to be truly present in your office all an opportunity to perceive how your rental business is getting along. Take a gander at your numbers from anyplace, whenever!

5. It coordinates with different installment doors

Do you regularly need to rearrange between various money related applications to handle your installments? This occupies a great deal of time and obstructs the rental pipeline with installments that haven’t been stamped. Rental scheduling software puts less time among you and your cash. It incorporates different installment doors like Stripe, Authorize.net, and PayPal so you can concentrate on the administration of your accounts. Rental software additionally gives you a choice to hold advance installments on Mastercards to pull down occurrences of client flake-outs. This makes for a slick method to balance out your income.

6. It offers robotized invoicing

This not just takes up a great deal of your time yet is inclined to typographical blunders. Rental scheduling software liberates you from the weight of keeping up physical deals records. It naturally produces and messages solicitations to your clients when they submit a request. A computerized framework that solicits for you as well as records for limits, promotion codes, premium charges, and assessments is the main rental arrangement that your business needs. This makes it simpler for you to run and oversee advertising efforts while rental software assumes responsibility for your authoritative daily schedule.

Rental scheduling software is a genuine turnkey answer for all your rental issues: Rental software fills the development of your business as it assumes responsibility for reservation confusion and disappointed clients. It incorporates various installment entryways and offers shifted highlights to help track your requests and screen your presentation.

If you have any questions for us, drop in an email at contact@rentcubo.com.

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How Much does it Cost to Build an Airbnb Clone?

Snippet: in this post we look at Airbnb, how it makes money and how much it costs to build an Airbnb clone script.

What is Airbnb

We all know that Airbnb is a peer to peer service sharing platform. It allows people list their assets (homes or properties) and allow others to pay for such temporary living accommodation. All this is carried out online – via both web and mobile apps. Airbnb has turned the hospitality industry upside down ever since it broke through the market in 2008.

Not only the rooms and homes are affordable (some are expensive, we agree), but the whole transaction happens so seamlessly as well. We have a very interesting account of how transparent and open Airbnb is, and what entrepreneurs in the sharing economy can learn from Airbnb – check this detailed post – we are sure you will like it.

How Airbnb makes money

So, how does Airbnb make money? It brings service providers (property owners) and travelers (who seek temporary accommodation) on their platform, and collect a fee from both parties. Easy, right? Yes and no.

Much like Uber, if there weren’t enough taxis on the road, people won’t use Uber. And the other way round is true as well. If people don’t know about what Uber is, then drivers simply won’t sign up. This dilemma was the crux of Airbnb (long before Uber’s).

Airbnb had to bring a lot of properties on its platform – for that, it had to develop trust with property owners. Only then 1000s could come on-board. At the other end of the spectrum, Airbnb had to market itself so that you and I knew what Airbnb is. With effective marketing and a breakthrough value proposition – it won over both suppliers and consumers.

This is how you create your own Airbnb

Today, Airbnb charges a nominal fee to hosts – for generating business for them, and levy booking or transactional charge fee to guests. With well over 4 million listings, and 150 million plus users, Airbnb has long achieved the economies of scale and is operating more efficiently than ever. Today, Airbnb faces challenges from its competitors who are successfully replicating its USP, and local governments who are getting tough with regulations. Even so, the company is well equipped with a great team lead by an intuitive leadership.

Is there room for more Airbnb like platforms?

Even in a global world, local challenges need localized solutions. This peer to peer platform, just like Airbnb, is disrupting markets in many developing economies – such as South East Asia. And it won’t stop there. If we just look at the hospitality industry alone, there is tremendous opportunity to serve new wave of first time travelers in the developing and the developed economies.

Air travel is getting more affordable as airlines need not pay the middle men to sell tickets. Today, most airline ticket booking happens on airline flagship sites. A platform like Airbnb creates a clutter free solution to rent anything, not just accommodations.

There are many companies who use the Airbnb clone scripts to rent parking spaces, coworking spaces, storage spaces, cars etc. The possibilities are endless.

What are the most important features an Airbnb clone script should contain?

A perfect Airbnb clone script should possess all the features necessary to build a successful platform. Let us look at the features which are needed for a modern day peer to peer lodging platform.

When you look through the internet to find the best Airbnb clone, there are five main segments which you need to pay attention to. The platform should be built with you (the entrepreneur), the service providers (the property owners), and users (travelers) in mind from the ground up. Let us look at five main aspects of a successful Airbnb clone script.

1 – Design

SEO built in: The script (both the website and the app) should infuse SEO standards from the ground-up. This helps you to attract more, regular traffic from search engines such as Google. You do not have to hire a digital marketing agency to tweak your site’s SEO.

Customization: What’s the use of a script which doesn’t allow you to put your own logo, change the color scheme or font? The clone script should be customizable – both on web and mobile platforms.

API integration: say if you want to use a local payment app and integrate it on your platform. The script should allow you to integrate any API and customize your service delivery.

2 – Secure and quick transactions

Payments: A clone script built on a strong technology stack makes it extremely secure and easy to transact on. Allowing users to pay via multiple payment modes securely on both the web and mobile platforms.

3 – Top notch user experience – UX

Responsive design: The platform should be responsive. This means users can seamlessly experience your platform on any device and any layout. Most of us use multiple devices during the day. So, if a user is checking for properties on a desktop PC at work, and on the phone at the end of the day, your platform will deliver similar experience without causing interruptions or asking the user to click a few more times.

Advance filter: Users should be able to select specific features such as properties with breakfast (or more) and get the desired results.

Host details: Host details with property features and ratings should be accessible easily. Allowing users to choose the best hosts.

Booking calendar: Users should be able to select dates using a calendar with minimal clicks. Just like on Airbnb.

Enable guest chat: The clone script should allow users to chat directly with the host with a clean UI.

Mange disputes: Managing dispute tickets and assigning them to staff to resolve should be enabled on the platform.

4 – Performance analytics

Revenue model: The platform should have a built-in Revenue Management System, allowing users (property owners or hosts) to analyze past performance and gain complete control in setting dynamic pricing to stay ahead of their competition.

5 – What about after sales service and upgrades?

Knowledgebase and Documentation: This is to offer you all the help in customizing your platform once you buy or subscribe to the clone script.

Tech support: The moment you buy the full version, you should be eligible for round-the-clock tech support till you go live.

Free upgrades for life: What about software upgrades? You should negotiate and get FREE software upgrades for LIFE. Once the platform is built, it wouldn’t take too many man hours for the developer to provide free software upgrades.

How much does it cost to build a clone script from scratch

A robust, modern clone script needs to be built on the latest technology stack. And add to it the resources you need to design, build, test, and launch the platform. In today’s demanding market, where it is a challenge to hire experienced developers, it will cost you anywhere close to USD 60,000 to develop an Airbnb clone script from scratch.

The best Airbnb clone script is already here for you

Instead of creating a clone script from scratch, why not buy it for far less?

A clone script which is 100% customizable

A clone script which has superior tech support

A clone script which has all the features of Airbnb

And that you receive FREE VERSION UPGRADES FOR LIFE

You don’t have to look any further than – RentRoom. RentRoom is a bespoke Airbnb clone script designed to be customized and comes with tremendous customer support and free software updates for life.

The wonderful thing is, you can check out the LIVE DEMO of the script or DOWNLOAD A LITE VERSION FOR FREE – to experience the platform before you buy it.

Ping us on WhatsApp with any query – we are available anytime and are more than happy to help you. At Rentcubo – everything we do, begins with you.

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Why Cities Need Smart Parking?

In this post: we look at how major cities could manage parking issues with smart parking solutions and what regulations can help cities plan future-proof infrastructure.

America’s fascination towards football – especially the Super Bowl LIII – is mesmeric. While the city of Atlanta hosted the latest showdown, the city planners, police and even Lyft had a part to play in ferrying hundreds and thousands of sports fans. More than 1 million people were expected to arrive in Atlanta by that afternoon. Just watch this video to see the impact of people influx on a city’s traffic management.

Some percentage of fans would come from other cities or states, and the rest from Atlanta itself. The question is, if cabs such as Lyft and Uber are bringing people in and thousands who drive down to the majestic Mercedes Benz stadium, where do they park all the cars?

Most American mega-cities – such as Philadelphia and New York – have excess parking spaces. The trouble is, they are being used inefficiently. If we ask mayors and city planners of each major American city about what concerns them about city planning – they wouldn’t hesitate to point at managing traffic and parking.

Most of human population is heading towards major cities, the urban jungles, so to speak. While many of us move to big cities in search of jobs, business opportunities, hundreds and thousands of travelers arrive for leisure and cultural events and activities. One major factor which influences what people think about a particular city’s infrastructure, is the ease of travel and parking. Either people clog roads to travel to and from work, or the city welcomes millions of tourists, either way, there got be efficient parking facilities available. All of us expect to quickly and efficiently locate an open parking space.

The time is right to implement smart parking management

Every major city around the world is about to face similar challenges. Many cities in the United States alone are talking about implementing smart parking solutions. The idea is to bring a variety of parking spaces under a handful of grids to simplify parking space management on a city level. The issue is not lack of parking spaces, it is to do with efficient management of parking slots.

A recent study conducted by the International Parking Institute in 2018 threw some light on what people expect in terms of parking technology to be implemented across major cities. What people want is intelligent guidance systems built into parking management solutions. Such a feature, when integrated on to a parking lot service app, would guide traffic to empty parking slots quickly and efficiently. Thereby saving time and money (gas) in finding a place to park your car.

Check out these emerging trends is parking lot management

With usage of smart sensors and affordable IoT platforms, any parking space can be converted in a smart parking lot. When LIVE data is fed into the parking lot app, then it is easy for people to be guided to the nearest (available) space. Real-time updates with reliable and live information captured from sensors facilitate intelligent parking decisions that are based on data, not luck.

For cities such as Atlanta, which saw a tremendous influx of people arriving for the Super Bowl LIII, such smart parking initiatives would have eliminated most issues in managing traffic and parking.

Parking management insight is a gold mine

The bigger picture city planners should look at is the insights they generate. Once smart parking systems are implemented, it starts collecting massive amounts of data about traffic and parking inflow. Analysts can dig deep to ascertain hourly demand each day. Such data can help city planners make adequate upgrades to existing city infrastructure to tackle future traffic and parking demand. Hang on a minute. How can the traffic management hub of a particular city get its hands on data generated by each and every – privately owned – parking space?

We need new data sharing regulations in major cities of the world

Regulations should mandate every parking space owner to implement smart parking solutions – may be through subsidies to encourage quick on-boarding. This is possibly the only way to boost mass on-boarding in quick time. The second part of the regulation should ensure that each parking lot business to share data with local municipalities. Insights gathered from this data will help cities to better equip themselves to tackle sudden influx of traffic and demand for parking.

How about a parking space management software like Airbnb?

We all know that Airbnb is a prime example of a business which has excelled at allowing people to share resources on-the-go and make money from it. What we have done is take the Airbnb platform, clone it, and redesign it to suit the parking spaces industry.

What you get is an Airbnb like platform where parking lot businesses can register and sell slots on-the-go. Not only that, the in-built map allows drivers to check empty parking spaces and let the app guide them to the desired location.

Users can pay within the app itself, making the entire experience completely paperless. Visit Rentcubo.com/parking-slot-management-software for detailed info.

A comprehensive guide to choose the best parking lot management software

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6 Ways to Improve Storage Facility Environmental Impact

Today industry leaders and governments all over the world are taking drastic measures to make our industries and economies more sustainable. To market a self storage business like any other won’t generate much traction today.

However, there is good news. Today consumers are very aware of businesses impacting local environments. If you are building a new self storage business or are looking at boosting revenue for an existing one, it is a fantastic idea to implement green measures and highlight the same in your marketing messages.

In this post we look at 6 easy ways to turn your storage facility green and reduce its carbon impact on the local environment.

#1 Remodel your facility through a LEED certified contractor

If your storage facility is aged or if you are planning for an extension, then we suggest you to work with a LEED certified contractor to remodel your facility. Older the facility, you get to implement more green measures.

Why would you need to work with a LEED certified contractor? What is LEED by the way? LEED = Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. This was created with a set of highly sustainable standards for the construction industry. Buildings under LEED certification are designed to be remarkably energy efficient, they use low energy lighting and cooling systems. The buildings are equipped with superior indoor air quality. Measures are also taken to recycle water. Mainly, the buildings are built using sustainable materials.

LEED certified buildings are rated on a scale of Silver, Gold, and Platinum. This is purely based on the efficiency of energy consumption. All LEED certified buildings are more sustainable and affordable to maintain on a monthly basis. This is the crux of driving sustainable construction. All fittings inside, right from lighting to cooling systems are highly energy efficient.

Here’s a detailed guide to help you choose the best self storage software

#2 Go completely paperless

Self storage businesses need a lot of paperwork to be drawn with tenants to sign contract agreements. This usage of paper can be eradicated by implementing a paper-free software application to run your business. This way, you get to sign agreements and let tenants pay and renew for storage spaces online. Especially through mobile devices.

Self storage software also makes it easy to manage multiple storage facilities on a single dashboard screen. The best aspect of running a completely paperless storage business is that you reduce expenses on printer paper, toners, ink and printers themselves.

#3 Add minimalistic landscaping to your facility

As a storage business owner, it is given that you would put every square foot of space to maximize your revenue by building as many storage spaces as possible. However, adding minimalistic landscaping to your facility makes your storage space easy on the eye.

You should also pay attention to erosion. Chemicals used to clean you storage facility, rainwater and snow cleared off your landscape might affect neighboring properties. Erosion control landscaping such as rip-rap (large rocks used to armor shorelines against heavy water or ice erosion), transition mats, and hedges can help protect neighboring properties, streambeds, bridges, pilings, and roads against becoming supersaturated and damaged from water erosion.

#4 Provide recycling boxes to your tenants

As a storage space business, signing contracts with vendors who supply sustainable packing materials would do your business a lot of good. If you offer locks, boxes and other moving equipment, choose to sell eco-friendly, recycled materials. Eco-friendly products come with a premium price, you can charge extra for selling environment friendly products. Your customers wouldn’t flinch to contribute to a sustainable transaction.

There are certain items like packing peanuts, bubble wrap, styrofoam products and other plastic materials used for thorough packing. Choose biodegradable products which are safe and which don’t breakdown or ware off easily. Most of today’s city landfills are full of chemical laden products. By offering safe, biodegradable packing materials, you make your business more sustainable.

#5 Install solar panels

Cost of solar energy generation has gone down severly for the past decade. Consider installing solar panels on your facilities roof top and parking areas. The upfront cost to overturn energy generation cost might be high, but you will generate savings on energy bills in the long run.

#6 Retrofit property lighting

To put it simply, replace all old lighting with energy efficient LED lights. Not only they consume less energy to output bring lighting, they also last for a very long time when compared to regular CFL alternatives.

You can also go one step ahead and install a motion sensor – which detects people movement and turn lights on and switches lights off when no ones around. This is a very efficient way of saving energy. And these sensors won’t cost much, just Google ‘light sensors’ and you get a ton of products which are cost effective.

How to manage your storage business seamlessly

One place to start with managing a self storage business is the web and mobile platforms. In today’s world, most transactions are dealt online and this holds true while booking and renewing self storage spaces in large cities as well.

The perfect platform for people to book and pay for living spaces has been Airbnb, for a long time. In fact Airbnb might be the only platform which has such an expansive reach, delivering seamless and safe transactions worldwide.

The same platform can be applied to storage businesses as well. The perfect solution is an Airbnb clone script, modified to suit the requirements of the self storage industry.

The best software to manage your self storage business

We have worked with many businesses in the self storage industry. We have done extensive research and ended up creating RentStorage. RentStorage is a versatile platform designed perfectly for self storage businesses.

Either you manage a small lot or multi-facility lots, RentStorage will help you manage all inventories on one dashboard. Making it easy for you to see what’s vacant, and what isn’t. Allow your users to book their slots and pay online, without you having to move a muscle.

There is so much more to RentStorage, check out this link to review all the features of the platform. You can also view the LIVE DEMO or download a LITE VERSION for free, to experience the platform on both mobile and web – before you even think of buying this platform.

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6 Ways to Organize your Parking Lot

Synopsis: in this post we look at 6 steps which will help you organize and run your parking lot easily.

#1 Create a free flow of traffic

Most people who visit your parking lot are not aware of the layout. Use sufficient signs to guide people in and out of the lot. This makes easy movements of vehicles and people would love you for making it butter smooth. Using barricades during peak traffic inflow makes for safe car movement.

#2 Put an end to fast driving within your parking lot

When people are in a hurry, they tend to drive incredibly fast. You cannot man mark each car. Place speed bumps and curbs to force car drivers to drive at safe speeds in your parking lot.

Quick Read: How major cities tackle parking lot demand

#3 Highlight restricted areas

If ever you wish to block certain areas of your parking lot, use delineator and bollards and no parking stands to indicate. This makes it easy for users to drive through without causing unnecessary gridlock. Restricting parking in certain areas also makes it easy to fill up parking lots in a phased manner.

Quick Read: What is the best parking lot software

#4 Highlight access areas

As pedestrians need access to walk to their cars, it is wise to use bright markings to define vehicle and pedestrian access. The more drivers and pedestrians know where they should and shouldn’t be, the easier it will be to maintain order in your parking lot. Use pavement marking tools – such as custom stencils and reflective pavement markers – to indicate safety lines that give individuals some direction in your lot.

#5 Set up a lot of lights

Safety, security and visibility are of utmost importance for a parking lot. Especially during night time. Set up adequate lighting in the parking lot to make it easy for users. There are some parking lots who use green lights to indicate empty spaces, which makes it remarkably easy to spot parking slots.

#6 Turn away trespassers

Intruders may cause damage to grounds as well as company property. Post security signs to discourage unwanted individuals from trespassing.

An Airbnb clone for Parking Lot management

Buying or investing on software solutions is a tough ask, especially with multiple platforms offering similar features.

Check out the LIVE DEMO of RentPark on web and mobile platforms

That is why we have built a LITE version of RentPark which can be downloaded for FREE. Experience the platform before you buy it. At Rentcubo, we offer round-the-clock technical support to help you from the day you buy the platform till the day you take it live.

Download RentPark LITE now to experience the platform inside out

RentPark is completely customizable, use your brand logo, colors, and fonts on both the web and mobile apps. Connect to us on Whatsapp and ask all your questions about RentPark. We are happy to help. At Rentcubo, we begin with you.

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How to Choose a Vacation Rental script?

Snippet: in this post we look at the what a vacation rental script is and what features are absolutely necessary for you to choose the best script.

How about an Airbnb clone script

The Airbnb platform – on both web and mobile – has disrupted the travel and tourism industry. The platform is safe and secure for both hosts (property owners) and guests (travelers).

We have extensively written about Airbnb’s successful business model and how you can create a platform exactly like Airbnb – with all the features on both web and mobile platforms.

A clone script takes all the excellent features from a platform like Airbnb and creates a replica of it – hence the name ‘clone’. Now, is a copy of the platform as good as the original?

The answer to this question is simple. The platform (clone script) is just the beginning. Even Airbnb don’t define themselves as a tech company. The founders describe themselves as a customer service company.

As a result, it is vitally important to choose the right vacation rental script and offer excellent service to make sure your business succeeds.

Why an Airbnb clone script is better

To begin with, a good clone script will save you a lot of time and money. Time – saving you hours of work to plan, design, and develop a comparable tech platform. And money – you need top quality designers and developers to build a great platform.

So, the question is, why not buy a ready-made, tailor made clone script? One which is based on the best in the business a.k.a Airbnb. And one which is customizable and easy to deploy?

With an Airbnb clone script, you will get all the features which work on Airbnb and the features your customers want. The idea of producing high quality, similar user experience on both your website and mobile app is easy with a solid rental script.

What are the best features of an Airbnb clone script

Succeeding in the vacation rental industry is all about creating a cohesive and a safe platform for both hosts and guests. Only when the homeowner feels safe about your platform, will he/she list their property with you.

Only when users find enough listings on your platform, would they be interested in booking homes/rooms. Here are the best set of features which are absolutely necessary while choosing the best rental script for your business:

Features to encourage hosts – property owners

Communication is key: allow hosts to chat with guests. This promotes a transparent transaction and avoids cancellations.

An Airbnb clone script should allow you to offer the chat option like Airbnb.

Protect hosts against cancellations: Last moment cancellations is a bane for hosts. They not only end up losing the business, but also get less to no time to find new guests.

A good clone script should allow you to create transparent and clear cancellation policies and make it easy to implement those policies.

Offer security to home owners against property damage: Most property owners stay far away. As a result, they don’t get to meet guests and keep an eye on the property. So, what happens when there is property damage of any kind. Such as a broken tap or a window to a damaged television or air conditioner caused by guests?

A clone script should allow you to create some sort of property insurance measures to protect hosts. Just like Airbnb does.

Create a community for hosts: Let your community of hosts communicate and learn from each other about hosting on your platform. By creating a community, you encourage collective problem solving and reduce your customer service cost.

The best clone script should be ready to host an in-built community with all the features necessary to register, invite, and communicate easily on web as well as mobile platforms.

Features to encourage guests – travelers

Protect guests against cancellations: you drive guests away when property owners cancel bookings at the last moment – just because they got a better booking deal through some other platform. To avoid such a scenario, create a merit and performance based host hierarchy system. Promote hosts who never cancel bookings and perform well to the top of the ladder. Airbnb calls this as Superhost.

The rental script you choose should allow you to create such a merit based host hierarchy. One purely based on the rules you create to boost your business.

Onboard a lot of listings: Only if there are enough cab drivers, will Uber succeed. Only if there is enough good content will Netflix succeed. The same applies to your business. You have to onboard a lot of listings to lure more travelers to your website and mobile app.

A good rental script should not limit the number free listings.

Highlight reviews and ratings: Make it easy for guests to leave reviews, and for hosts to reply and resolve issues. This way, you create a transparent platform which drives engagement.

The rental script you choose should allow for extensive ratings and reviews from both hosts and guests. The user interface should be easy for both parties to access reviews and ratings on the website as well as on the mobile app.

Make it safe, secure, and easy to pay and receive refunds: There will always be cancellations and there will always come a time for hosts to refund the booking money. Your platform should make it easy for both parties to transact.

Any good vacation rental script should allow for refunds to be initiated. And also, for cancellation charges to be levied, before the refund is initiated.

RentRoom is one such Airbnb clone script

We have built RentRoom to mimic the features of Airbnb. Not only that, we offer round the clock tech support till you take your platform live. And also, we offer free software upgrades – for both web and mobile platforms – free for life. This is the guarantee you get from us. For any questions and clarifications, reach out to us at contact@rentcubo.com or connect over WhatsApp here.

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Top Trends in Parking Lot Management

Snippet: In this post we highlight the top 5 parking management trends from around the world.

Parking – an unstructured menace

Parking is a menace. We all know that, as we have experienced it first hand, frequently. As our population grows, more of us move towards urban areas. Primarily because there is better access for jobs and standard of living.

With this constant influx of people into our cities, managing parking is only going to get difficult. Because the participants in urban mobility are scattered, and are not regulated under one umbrella, it is very difficult for city municipalities to move with changing trends of urban mobility. Hence most cities find it extremely difficult to administer innovative solutions.

Uber and Lyft have changed the way we commute. This concept of shared resources have managed to afflict a shift in thinking. The younger generation is no longer interested in owning cars – what with high buying and maintenance costs. Add to it, highly jammed roads and motorways, irregular parking has rendered car ownership completely redundant.

This is not to say that car makers will shut shop. But, there is a greater need for all players who are part of urban mobility to work together and deliver a cohesive car and traffic management solutions.

We have written about the growth in vehicle ownership – with statistics – and its huge impact on parking management in this post. Do read here it to see a fresh perspective on the industry.

Despite the dwindling interest in car ownership, there still are millions of cars – and they need ample, quick, safe parking spaces. And this need is driving tremendous innovations in the parking lot management industry. The idea to find any – or a set of – solutions is to make parking more accessible, affordable, convenient, and efficient.

#1 Urban infrastructure as a whole

Most of our malls, cinemas, universities, and city centers are woeful at providing seamless parking solutions. Add to this, the rapid pace at which our urban living conditions are changing. These factors have made it incredibly tough to plan and build the right infrastructure. Especially an infrastructure which should stay relevant for at least a decade. Building more parking spaces may not be the right answer.

However, there are cities and urban municipalities who have taken to the concept of smart city planning. This is a unique way of looking at urban planning from the bottom up. Where all amenities, utilities are considered in the designing phase itself.

Cities such as Singapore, Barcelona, and London are just a few cities who have made great progress in this direction. More cities are in the pipeline of implementing such smart strategies. The remarkable aspect of implementing these smart city projects in a phased manner is that it gives new cities a chance to learn from previous projects and make the necessary modifications. What people in the business world call – being AGILE.

#2 Map guided parking solutions

Imagine you open your app on the phone – even before reach the parking lot. The parking lot app – from your local parking management space – tells you how many empty spaces are available (made possible by IoT sensors which highlights empty slots on the app immediately). You plan your route accordingly. You are now close to the parking lot, and the mobile app with a live map guides you to the nearest slot – without you having to touch your phone again.

You come back after a while, drive your car home, and the app calculates the fee and notifies you once the money is paid. Seamless, easy, secure, and most of all hassle free. This is the power of map guided smart parking solutions.

As more people use such apps, it starts collecting more data and helps administrators plan parking lots in a better way.

#3 No more paying cash

The same parking lot app which guided you to the parking lot will have its own e-wallet linked to your bank account. After each parking, it sends you a payment notification. You approve it by tapping YES, and it’s done.

There is another way. You can pre-fill your parking lot wallet and allow the app to deduct the parking charges automatically without your intervention. And the app can send you a weekly spending report for you to monitor.

#4 Everything is now on the mobile phone

The previous two examples bare evidence for the tremendous impact of smartphone on the parking lot industry. Map guided navigation and easy payments are just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. In the future we will see hybrid apps which combine the following features in one – single app:

Google Maps like feature with live traffic updates

Urban public transportation services like trams, metros, Uber and Lyft

And parking slot booking and guidance

This is the future.

#5 Managing curbside

Untidy planning and management of curbsides not only affects parking spaces, but it also hinders free flow of traffic. Cars and trucks parked incorrectly means vehicles plying on that particular street will end up driving slowly.

The solution to this is a fresh redesign of curbsides. In 2016, the city of Seattle implemented and enforced new policies that redefine the curb lane as a “flex zone,” instead of a parking lane. Depending on the street type, the lane is divided into priority zones with in-lane stops, dedicated loading spaces, and protected bike lanes.

An Airbnb clone for Parking Lot management

Buying or investing on software solutions is a tough ask, especially with multiple platforms offering similar features.

Check out the LIVE DEMO of RentPark on web and mobile platforms

That is why we have built a LITE version of RentPark which can be downloaded for FREE. Experience the platform before you buy it. At Rentcubo, we offer round-the-clock technical support to help you from the day you buy the platform till the day you take it live.

Download RentPark LITE now to experience the platform inside out

RentPark is completely customizable, use your brand logo, colors, and fonts on both the web and mobile apps. Connect to us on Whatsapp and ask all your questions about RentPark. We are happy to help. At Rentcubo, we begin with you.