We need your help now
Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
By continuing, you are indicating that you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
IT COULD BE the eHarmony of the accommodation-sharing world.
Not that the brains behind Homestay.com, the latest Irish startup starting to make waves in the global business arena, particularly want to be compared to a matchmaking website.
But in the same way the dating site shook up the industry by offering a more-personalised experience, so one of the newest entrants to the burgeoning “sharing economy” could rock Airbnb’s stranglehold on the shared-accommodation sector.
“If you think about how eHarmony disrupted Match, essentially it was around finding the right attributes or questions to ask as you build profiles,” chief executive Alan Clarke told TheJournal.ie.
“We’re thinking about the same sort of process – how do you make sure that a host in Homestay is going to say: ‘Oh, I always get the right guests so that’s why I list my site on Homestay’.
And guests will also say: ‘I always get a fantastic experience on Homestay because the nature of the host I went to was exactly what I was expecting’.”
Only a year old but away and running
While it started life to smooth and take the process of students looking for hosted accommodation online, Clarke said the site’s backers quickly discovered that everyone from holidaymakers to those relocating were after a similar experience.
The Dublin-based company now has “nearly” 35,000 hosts signed up of which about 15,000 are live for bookings despite launching its site only a little over 12 months ago.
But the rapid-fire growth is not altogether surprising as the company has serious pedigree behind it in founders Debbie Flynn and Tom Kennedy, one of two men who jointly started Hostelworld to tear up the rules for the hostel-booking industry.
Homestay’s latest figures showed its average holidaying guest stayed a lazy 12 nights, compared to 20 nights for students, although Clarke said the company had just taken a booking for a guest headed to South America for 211 nights.
He said the biggest problem at the moment was signing up enough hosts to keep pace with booking demand.
‘People-based travel’
Clarke said that over the next few months, the company would also be trying to breath more life into its concept of “people-based travel” – finding the right ways to connect hosts with the most suitable guests and vice versa.
“Athough the price is probably cheaper than some of the other alternative accommodation options, primarily people are choosing to book a homestay because it’s about meeting new people,” he said.
“Equally on the host side, when you ask people about their motivation for hosting, earning cash is a reason, but meeting new people and having a cultural experience are as important or even more important.”
One planned move was to introduce video chatting in the booking process to cut down on any potential “friction” between guests and hosts, while another would be matching peoples’ interests and expectations.
How about a night at the pub… or day at the beach?
A guest coming to Ireland could expect a visit to the local pub as part of the experience, for example, while a Sydney-based host might include a trip to the beach in their offering.
Clarke said people had been using homestay products for “decades” – the only difference was until now the work of choosing and booking a host wasn’t being done online.
“I think the process of booking a homestay, because there is always host present, is different (to Airbnb) - where and at what price are important factors in the decision-making process for us, but who is an equally important part.”
READ: Carol Bergin came to Ireland on a homestay in 1970… and never left
READ: You can rent an actual ‘self-catering Irish pub’ in Tipperary on Airbnb
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
The US guest looks very happy wih his 2 Canadian hosts
Yeah, let’s begin with shoes for starters…
The bedroom in Quebec is whopper.
Its a big bed but I could still make it shake!
Use precise geolocation data. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Store and/or access information on a device. Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development.
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work.
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then these services may not function properly.
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not be able to monitor our performance.
Cookies, device or similar online identifiers (e.g. login-based identifiers, randomly assigned identifiers, network based identifiers) together with other information (e.g. browser type and information, language, screen size, supported technologies etc.) can be stored or read on your device to recognise it each time it connects to an app or to a website, for one or several of the purposes presented here.
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times an ad is presented to you).
Information about your activity on this service (such as forms you submit, content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (for example, information from your previous activity on this service and other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (that might include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present advertising that appears more relevant based on your possible interests by this and other entities.
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on your advertising profiles, which can reflect your activity on this service or other websites or apps (like the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects.
Information about your activity on this service (for instance, forms you submit, non-advertising content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (such as your previous activity on this service or other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (which might for example include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present content that appears more relevant based on your possible interests, such as by adapting the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find content that matches your interests.
Content presented to you on this service can be based on your content personalisation profiles, which can reflect your activity on this or other services (for instance, the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects. This can for example be used to adapt the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find (non-advertising) content that matches your interests.
Information regarding which advertising is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine how well an advert has worked for you or other users and whether the goals of the advertising were reached. For instance, whether you saw an ad, whether you clicked on it, whether it led you to buy a product or visit a website, etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of advertising campaigns.
Information regarding which content is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine whether the (non-advertising) content e.g. reached its intended audience and matched your interests. For instance, whether you read an article, watch a video, listen to a podcast or look at a product description, how long you spent on this service and the web pages you visit etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of (non-advertising) content that is shown to you.
Reports can be generated based on the combination of data sets (like user profiles, statistics, market research, analytics data) regarding your interactions and those of other users with advertising or (non-advertising) content to identify common characteristics (for instance, to determine which target audiences are more receptive to an ad campaign or to certain contents).
Information about your activity on this service, such as your interaction with ads or content, can be very helpful to improve products and services and to build new products and services based on user interactions, the type of audience, etc. This specific purpose does not include the development or improvement of user profiles and identifiers.
Content presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type, or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times a video or an article is presented to you).
With your acceptance, your precise location (within a radius of less than 500 metres) may be used in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
With your acceptance, certain characteristics specific to your device might be requested and used to distinguish it from other devices (such as the installed fonts or plugins, the resolution of your screen) in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Your data can be used to monitor for and prevent unusual and possibly fraudulent activity (for example, regarding advertising, ad clicks by bots), and ensure systems and processes work properly and securely. It can also be used to correct any problems you, the publisher or the advertiser may encounter in the delivery of content and ads and in your interaction with them.
Certain information (like an IP address or device capabilities) is used to ensure the technical compatibility of the content or advertising, and to facilitate the transmission of the content or ad to your device.
Information about your activity on this service may be matched and combined with other information relating to you and originating from various sources (for instance your activity on a separate online service, your use of a loyalty card in-store, or your answers to a survey), in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
In support of the purposes explained in this notice, your device might be considered as likely linked to other devices that belong to you or your household (for instance because you are logged in to the same service on both your phone and your computer, or because you may use the same Internet connection on both devices).
Your device might be distinguished from other devices based on information it automatically sends when accessing the Internet (for instance, the IP address of your Internet connection or the type of browser you are using) in support of the purposes exposed in this notice.
The choices you make regarding the purposes and entities listed in this notice are saved and made available to those entities in the form of digital signals (such as a string of characters). This is necessary in order to enable both this service and those entities to respect such choices.
have your say