The mysterious Sweden/US based startup BuzzPal has revealed us what they are all about. As the founder, Chris Comella, says in the video, BuzzPal is an advanced version of CouchSurfing with a business model and growth strategy and it seems they are going head to head with a US based startup AirBed&Breakfast.
BuzzPal aims to facilitate people to find affordable accommodation on their travels from locals living in the given destination by enabling the locals to post their offer online with a price tag, be it an available couch, bed or even a flat for a few nights. In effect BuzzPal is an online marketplace for peer-to-peer traveling.
Chris didn’t want to say exactly how they aim to monetize the service just yet. Whether they use the same model as AirBed&Breakfast which charges a 5-12% service fee from the guest during the checkout process or use for example an advertising based business model to go with the transactional one.
Even though AirBed&Breakfast is already up and running (unlike BuzzPal) BuzzPal has still a good shot at the market. AirBed&Breakfast had less than $20,000 in seed capital from friends and family when it started and has only just started gathering users: For example, when I checked they only had two places posted in Finland, five places in Denmark, four places in Sweden, none in Norway, Iceland or any of the Baltic countries. Out of these, the places on offer in say Denmark were all more expensive than for example Hotel Cabin City which is a decent choice right downtown Copenhagen.
iWillStudy.com
Unita
There is also another website: http://www.hospitalityclub.org
There you can find FREE accommodation worldwide! The club has about half a million members worldwide (in Helsinki about 2000), so it is really easy to find free accommodation literally anywhere – and yes, I am talking out of experience :) The good thing: If you join the Hospitality Club, you don’t have any obligations! It doesn’t cost anything to join and you don’t have to host anybody yourself if you don’t want to.
Moreover, the Hospitality Club fosters intercultural exchange and international friendships by offering a platform for members to meet – and to organize big or small member meetings – and to learn from each other. In fact, we have a regular Hospitality Club member meeting every first Sunday of the month at 6pm in Ravintola Nolla in Helsinki. Everybody is welcome!
More info: http://www.hospitalityclub.org and http://www.tilmanbauer.eu/hc
Hi Ville,
Just wanted to drop by and say thanks for grabbing me for this interview at Seedcamp OpenCoffee in London.
I’m glad we were able to do our first-ever interview (and break our story) with you, ArcticStartup.com, and it’s readers. Seems fitting since you guys are a blog about Nordic startups and we are (at least for now) a Nordic startup.
We made a lot of great friends and contacts during Seedcamp week in London, plus we sponsored our first-ever event, the TechCrunch UK Tech Talk, which was a smashing success (and great party!).
We look forward to staying in touch and sharing more BuzzPal news with you guys in the future.
Hope to see you soon! And hope some of your readers will get in touch, especially if they are prospective members (sign up at http://buzzpal.com), team members, or angel investors.
We are ready to make our presentation and bring in ONE (maybe more) strategic angel investor and one “rock star” user experience, interface, and interaction designer (or firm) to join us and help bring BuzzPal live as a global brand and set of applications.
Cheers,
Chris
http://buzzpal.com/contact
Tilman,
Thanks for the heads up. Hostitalityclub.org looks interesting. Nevertheless, I believe there is a whole new market that has not seen too many takers. For example if you’d have a proper rating mechanism (think eBay) and a critical mass you could see a new traveler segment emerge.
By introducing people to each other within already formed groups and communities via the plethora of social networks a smart entrepreneur could find like minded people who’d be very interested finding new friends and saving on traveling at the same time. If or when Open Social and more and more open API take hold this could be a very interesting and possible profitable space.
Chris,
Thank you for breaking the story via ArcticStartup and good luck with Buzzpal. Like said, we’ll be following you so keep us and our readers posted on how you guys doing.
Just a quick reply to Ville:
First of all, it’s hospitalityclub.org and not Hostitalityclub.org – the Hostility Club is an entirely different thing :D
The Hospitality Club HAS a rating mechanism, which is in fact much better than the one of eBay. In eBay, as long as the writer cannot prove his statement to be entirely correct, the receiver of a negative comment has the right to claim the comment to be deleted. Yes, this has happened. In the Hospitality Club, comments cannot be deleted ever – you can only write a so-called self-comment in which you state your perspective, if you receive a negative comment.
The Hospitality Club has about half a million members and it is growing strongly! I think this mass is already quite critical :) Or am I wrong?
The club IS being used by thousands of travelers all over the world every day. Free accommodation is after all a very attractive thing. Yet, the Hospitality Club does not only focus on travelers. It aims on a more general level to “bring people together” (the club’s slogan), which means that people from all age groups can meet other people from other cultures even at their own homes. It also incorporates groups which foster like-minded people finding each other more easily within the club.
The Hospitality Club differs from other social networks in the following ways: It emphasizes people meeting in real life and not just on the internet; the mission is more ideological (fostering worldwide peace) than just to enable people to have fun, rather, members having fun is the means of the club to achieve its mission.
Tilman,
Sorry for the typo. Indeed The Hospitality Club seems to have a quite a few members -about 330K globally.
I’m not saying there is anything particularly wrong with HC. All I’m saying is that I believe there is a market for a solution that directs like minded people together more easily than browsing through profiles, the most obvious segmentation criteria being overlapping taste or hobbies (eg. people interested in design or architecture). By bringing in an element from for example TripSay or TripWolf, these services could make hosting travelers more rewarding for both parties.
Also by saying Open Social or some other social network API would benefit the service, I don’t mean only that it would find matching criteria like taste in say design. This could also be a security element in the instances that people use their own name, etc. in the social network the API is pulled from.
Facebook is a good example of such a social network where very few people have a fake identity, even though Facebook is not most open handed with the user data.
Hi again :)
My point is that I believe that the Hospitality Club serves the well-identified market very well. I don’t see how a new start-up offering exactly the same service but at a higher price (compared to zero in HC) could ever succeed in the long-term. All those features that you mention ARE featured/incorporated/included in the Hospitality Club! (This is, on a side-note, not always the case with Couchsurfing.) If you want, I can tell you about the features in detail :)
Oh and btw, the counter on the homepage of the Hospitality Club is broken :D The club had about 450.000 members around 5 months ago and has continued to grow, that’s the latest info I have.
Tilman,
Got your well argued point Tilman. Even if HC is feature wise right there with the rest of them, it might differ in user interface or just have a less appealing brand for some people. Or it could just grab the other half of the market.
Regardless, my point is that just as there are many banks that offer financial transaction services or say mobile phones that can be used for calling there is a market for more than one service provider in the given market.
Competition can be also a good thing to improve their service, even for HC. The more the merrier from the travelers point of view.
Hi again.
As a capitalist, I of course agree with the statement that competition is always good. However, when talking about HC, I am not taking the role of the capitalist competitor but the one of a benevolent world saver =) And, in fact, I just realize that this discussion might actually not be too much related to entrepreneurship. So, please accept my apologies for these slightly off-topic comments :) As a last note, a quote from a text regarding competition in the hospitality exchange community:
##########
Does the world need another network?
It’s a philosophical question in the hospitality exchange community. Some people believe that the more networks the better, competition improves all networks, some also claim there is no competition. Others think that one big volunteer based network that is well run would be enough, allowing us to bundle all energy into solving technical and financial problems, making it safe, not wasting volunteer time on the same things on several sites.
##########
Personally, I think that one big hospitality exchange community is better than many small. I don’t think this statements is correct: “The more the merrier from the travelers point of view.” The more members one community has, the easier it is to find a host. In your case, a traveler would need to use many communities in order to maximize the chances of actually finding a host. And lastly, one big network is much better able to keep criminals out.
But ok, enough for now about this topic :) I am happy to answer any further questions about the Hospitality Club, if you have any.
Greetings,
Tilman