A London-based home-sharing network, designed to compete with
corporate housing providers for business travelers, is expanding into New York
City.
Onefinestay during the past few years has grown in London from
a collection of six homes to more than 500 open for guest stays when the owners
are out of town. Co-founder and international vice president Evan Frank said
the service has become popular among business travelers and that Onefinestay
has developed contractual relationships with several companies for business
travel.
"We can't offer thousands of rooms, so we're working
with the smaller businesses," Frank said. "It's not the investment
banks. It's more of the hedge funds."
Corporate travel departments largely use Onefinestay for
relocations and consultants who come to a city on repeat business.
Occasionally, companies use it for business trips of three to five nights, but that's
"not the bulk of our business," Frank said. Most available homes are
multi-bedroom, though a few are single-room apartments.
"The distinction from corporate housing is that these
are real people's homes with real creature comforts," Frank said. "Also,
corporate housing is typically not orientated around the neighborhoods of New
York. If you want to stay in TriBeCa, SoHo or Williamsburg, it's not easy to do
in corporate housing."
In New York, Onefinestay currently is working with about 30
homes and is quickly growing the network. It recently raised $12 million in
financing via U.S. venture capital firm Canaan Partners to support the
expansion. Participating homes must be screened for "distinctiveness,"
according to Frank, and they also must provide wireless Internet service for
guests.
Onefinestay ultimately might expand into other cities in
North America and Europe, but the New York expansion will take much of the
company's attention in the near future, Frank said.