Badi sets aside 400 rooms for health professionals in Barcelona

Spain: AI room rental platform Badi is setting aside 400 rooms in Barcelona to health professionals that are joining the fight against COVID-19.

The proptech startup is reaching out to medics, nurses and other health professionals that are travelling to the Catalan capital to help treat those affected by the coronavirus and it is making properties available to house them should they not alternative accommodation provided.

According to Spanish website EjePrima, the company is discussing options with health authorities and various hospitals in Barcelona to be able to welcome the workers as soon as possible.

The rooms, which are located in four entire buildings and different individual properties in the city centre, are normally operated as short-term holiday rentals for tourists. However, at this pressing moment of need, they are being made available for a provisional three-month period, although there will be flexible options for health professionals to cut it short or extend it as they wish.

Badi CEO and founder, Carlos Pierre, told the website that the company’s aim is to “help doctors and nurses as much as possible in all the hospitals in Barcelona”.

The rooms and properties will also be fully furnished and have access to all of the resources that Badi Homes offers in its typical services. These offerings include cleaning, laundry services and access to fresh towels and bed sheets during the entirety of their stay.

The urban room rental marketplace is rapidly growing its presence across Europe, most notably in key gateway markets such as Barcelona, Berlin, London and Madrid respectively. Though its most rapidly growing market is London, it announced in January that it had surpassed the milestone of 300,000 room rental listings in those four cities combined.

At the same time, it unveiled plans to expand into the United States later this year although how this will be affected by the coronavirus pandemic remains to be clear.

For more information, visit the Badi website here.