Rental marketplace Anyplace expands into Europe
Europe: B2C marketplace Anyplace, where travellers book furnished accommodations on a flexible monthly basis, is expanding in Europe following a $2.5m seed round led by the founders of HotelTonight, Airbnb and Booking.com.
The furnished housing rental firm has seen its first listings in London go live this week and it has its eyes firmly set on the markets in European capitals such as Berlin, Lisbon and Madrid.
Founded in 2017 by CEO Satoru Steve Naito and current CTO Koichi Tanaka, Anyplace wants to make month-to-month accommodation bookings as efficient as the booking processes we see for hotels. It partners with real estate firms to list their properties on its platform, including short-term rentals, extended stay hotels, serviced apartments and co-living spaces.
Speaking to Travel Daily Media’s Steve Willmore, Naito said: “Everything soon will be on demand; for example, transportation has Uber, but there is nothing similar for housing rental. People in need of stable, temporary accommodation – like students, digital nomads, and business travellers – can benefit from Anyplace’s simple online booking process and flexible lease terms.”
Anyplace screens and vets all of its potential customers, to ensure that rental payments are paid, any potential legal costs are covered by insurance and marketing budgets are in place to help tenants search for their ideal accommodation.
The marketplace currently serves 20 cities in America; New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles, Austin, Miami, Houston, Sacramento, Atlanta, and Montreal.
Saito also highlighted the importance of co-living and co-working as a reason for the success of its business model. Many of the company’s customers are ‘digital nomads’ and Anyplace focuses on cities which are conducive to the trend to balance out the supply and demand in those locations.
Its accommodation partners include Gravity Co-living and Studios2Let in London, Projects in Berlin and Madrid, and Outsite in Lisbon. It will also be working with corporate lease company Stay Alfred and co-working and travel hospitality service, Selina, to establish itself as a force in the B2C flexible housing rental marketplace in competition with C2C marketplaces like Airbnb.
In addition, Saito aims to appeal to young professionals who are working remotely more often than previous generations, as he emphasised that evolving housing and lifestyle needs would need to be accommodated in flexible, affordable properties.
For more information, visit the Anyplace website here.
