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Pictured above: 'Little Hut in a Volcanic Crater' listed on Hovelstay.com
Airbnb undercuts hotel prices, and now there is a lodging service to undercut Airbnb prices. Hovelstay, an online service that lists inexpensive and sometimes oddball places to stay, has just announced a $1.2 million Series A funding round. The Glendale-based startup, boasts that all its listings are under $99.
"We really wanted to be the anti-luxury vacation rental site. Two of us who had years in the vacation rental business were always floored at how serious a lot of these vacation rental sites took their properties, describing them as luxury when in fact they weren't,” said CEO and co-founder Michael Bolger, in a statement. “So we decided on the approach of full disclosure – if it's a dump, we would love to have it, and students are in on this kind of experience.”
A hovel, which is defined as “a small, wretched, and often dirty house” by Merriam-Webster dictionary, is representative of Hovelstay’s no-frills approach. So called ‘Hovels’ on the company’s website are categorized as “Clean and Comfortable,” “Good Enough,” and “Survivor Hovels.” Accommodations vary from a futon in Boston, to a tree house in Washington state to a driftwood hut in a volcanic crater in Pahoa, Hawaii.
The company website’s tagline is “we’re all cheap and easy.” Right now the company is focused specifically on cash-strapped college students with a confirmable .edu email address. It is free to list on hovelstay.com. The company charges hosts 3 percent of the booking fee and students 3 percent for merchant processing.
“It's not just where you stay, its what happens when you stay there. The same experience as when you backpack through Europe during a summer break – you're willing to sleep on a bale of hay inside of a barn in Germany to save money. That's what we are selling,” said Bolger. “But, to be on the safe side, we do have some cool luxury listings, too."
