Startup Pitches Flexible-Term Stays for Modern Nomads

As short-term stints become a popular living method for today's on-the-go renter, San Francisco-based startup Anyplace is bringing flexible-term housing to market.

The platform offers options ranging from a pool of rooms and share-rentals to homes and vacation villas.

Unlike similar models on the market, such as Airbnb for example, some of its accommodation partners are legally licensed hotels—mainly in the extended stay hotel sub-category. The fledgling platform also partners with other medium-stay specialists, mainly coliving companies and vacation rental companies with their own inventory.

"If a company's business model is based on managing their own inventories, we're able to work with them. We list the company's properties on our website and promote them to our customers," explains Anyplace founder Steve Naito. His target customer is the "digital nomad" who is looking for security and stability, but doesn't want to commit to more than 30 days in one place.

A standard shorter-term rental with Anyplace is 30 days—substantially longer than an average vacation, but shorter than standard apartment leases allow. Traditionally, someone looking for an extended stay option longer than two weeks would need to consider options like an extended stay hotel, corporate housing, or a discounted rate for a longer stay at a vacation rental, which could still be pricey.

The trend gave rise to popular booking sites like Airbnb, which operates with a peer-to-peer (or C2C) model where homeowners rent their space directly to other consumers. Anyplace's B2C model hopes to bring added safeguards to the process by featuring only professionally managed properties.

"We standardize our booking process, so it's easy for customers to secure a room directly through Anyplace instead of going through each separate company's website," says Naito.

Anyplace currently has approximately 2,000 bookable units in its inventory and says that it generated $1.3 million in revenue in the past 12 months. The startup announced in June that it had closed a $2.5 million round of seed funding.

"We currently focus on affordable and modern lodging as a consumer product," says Naito. In the future, the company is looking at adding to its luxury and corporate housing inventory. It already partners with established niche lodging provider Stay Alfred.

The rates—which on the lowest end are around $1,500 for a month—are comparable to the studios or single rooms you could rent on a site like Airbnb, and also on par with the median rent one would pay in a standard 12-month lease in most major US cities. The company's business model allows it to have a diverse range of offerings, from apartment buildings to single-family homes, and can easily add more listings by signing with new partners.

Anyplace also offers additional marketing services for its partners, reaching new customer segments than they were previously targeting. As part of its marketing, the startup is also working to launch a loyalty rewards program and exclusive benefits packages for digital nomads using the Anyplace platform. The plan is to offer renters in major markets discounts on laundry, storage, transportation, food delivery, gyms and fitness classes, insurance, and coworking spaces—essentially everything a newcomer to a city might need.

Once a customer has signed on for their stay, Anyplace provides a payment system so they can pay rent through the website. The platform also assumes responsibility for delivering the rent to partners on time. In exchange for its services, it takes a 10% commission on bookings.

Operators and property managers listing with Anyplace also have additional layers of protection than other booking sites on the market, implemented specifically to make them feel more at ease with the medium-term rental model.

"We screen our potential clients carefully through our booking process. We check their backgrounds, credit scores, and criminal reports," says Naito. “We introduce only qualified guests to our partners."

In the worst case scenario where an operator no longer wants a renter in the property, the platform is also ready to offer additional protections.

"We provide our partners with an eviction protection program. Through this program, we guarantee coverage for a portion of any legal fees that may become necessary if our partners need to evict our customers," says Naito.

While the major travel and rental sites seem to have found their niche, none of them have really focused on the non-vacationer, but also non-resident segment. There is a growing global community of rootless, on-the-go residents who seek flexibility while still craving security and community. This is who Anyplace aims to serve.