Roomorama is a traveller’s one-stop shop for short-term rentals. An online marketplace connects and transacts with hosts and guests who believe in convenient, rewarding and unique travel experiences.
Belgian Curator Marco Torregrossa had a chat with Jia to get the latest scoop on Roomorama.
Looking in perspective – it’s now 2014 – and everyone learnt about peer-to-peer accommodation. What achievements are you most proud of and is there something you would have done differently?
We are proud to have become pioneers in this space, making home sharing safe and simple. However, at Roomorama we have not invented anything new. People have been sharing accommodation space for much longer than we have been around. What we have done is to put a price tag on security, minimise risks and make the booking process more efficient. We are also proud that peer-to-peer accommodation has created an ecosystem of other sharing services around it.
What we could have improved is a system that gives more incentives to leave reviews as to enhance the trust element in transactions. I expect more and more softwares will be used in the future to detect users’ behaviours online and aggregate reviews from across different platforms.
What are your big ideas for the moment? What would be the one next step you could take today – if you could – to move the collaborative economy agenda forward?
At the moment we are thinking of how to truly enable or – as we say – “hotelify” – instant bookings for all our properties. It is crucial for people to know who’s on the other side of the transaction. As of now, users have to send an inquiry and wait for a confirmation from the other party, before making the booking. We think that if we can encourage a small group of our hosts to be as instant as possible and for instance synchronise their calendar with ours, that will have a ripple effect and encourage more and more hosts to do the same.
What are you most excited about the home sharing sector and what are your biggest fears for the present and future? What’s your sense of what is going to happen in 5 years, 10 years, 20 years from now?
All of us are excited that this industry has become legitimate in its own rights. There is large endorsement these days. Communities are becoming bigger, as well as the overall following and traction, which contributes to validate the concept and business model. As a result, short term rentals and the whole collaborative consumption space is quickly becoming mainstream. It’s very exciting to be part of this movement now.
In terms of fears, we are concerned that overregulation could pose a problem that may hamper the potential of accommodation sharing. We believe engagement with regulators is very important to make sure policies do not come from top down as policy makers do not necessarily understand this new space. We expect regulators to be willing to understand this sector better, its potential for market efficiency and tourism attractiveness. We hope that in the next years they will come up with guidance on minimum safety standards and offer us a licence to operate, which in return could drive tax and other sorts of revenues to other parts of the economy.
What regulations would be most efficient in accelerating the transition to Collaborative Consumption, above all in Europe? Here the hotel lobby has clearly stated their opposition to peer-to-peer accommodation on the basis of customer protection, safety and threat to jobs in the tourism sector. They advocate for a level playing field. Given their large available resources, they are going to push their message across quite heavily, also in view of the forthcoming European elections this year and I am afraid Collaborative Consumption could come out weakened in front of regulators. What’s your take on this?
We are still a small player in this sector and we tend to suffer as opposed to the big companies with large resources to secure their say with governments. At this moment hotels see us as a treat. Ideally we would like if they could view competition more as an opportunity to fill gaps in their service and offer products more appealing to travellers. 9-10 nights are the average nights booked with our system, whereas hotels cater for a different segment of users, i.e. shorter term vacationers. Their approach is focussed on convenience, neutrality and short term stays. We would hope hotels could be more forward thinking and see us as someone to learn from when it comes to offering complementary services. This is the direction we are now working on, with service apartments, small guesthouses etc which are part of our database. A partnership with these professional renters is improving the reliability and quality of what we can offer. What we need at the moment is a model of partnership that could work also with large hotels as a way to complement each other business.
I do not agree with the argument that peer-to-peer accommodation is destroying jobs in the tourism sector. The move towards professionalism in sharing services is bringing revenues to both micro-entrepreneurs and small businesses. Sites like ours make accommodation much more affordable and accessible. It also allows for income generation in cities at large. I believe more people are going to restaurants, theatre and shopping, instead of paying more for staying in hotels.
European vacationers is one of our largest target group. However, we are a bit on the sideline when it comes to the European market, because we are not as localised there as we could be. Our largest markets are in US and Asia which is where we plan further expansion. We are however keeping track of short term rental laws in Europe as well as elsewhere and look forward to work with licence providers in these areas.
Finally, tell me, which is the most unique or bizarre type of accommodation you came across in your listings database?
We have lots of unique types of accommodation. What comes to my mind at the moment is a wax museum in Athens, Greece which caters for travellers in a few rooms they have upstairs. For those people staying there overnight, the visit to the museum is of course free.
