• by Harvey Chipkin , Columnist, September 21, 2015

While your parents told you that sharing is the nice thing to do, it was a lesson that the lodging industry is learning decades later. With Airbnb leading the way, variations on the accommodations-sharing concept are emerging, even exploding. A couple of entrants that seem to have gained traction in the wake of Airbnb’s growth are InvitedHome, which allows travelers to stay in fancy resort homes; and NightSwapping, where travelers gain virtual currency by sharing their own homes—in exchange for the ability to stay in the homes of other people.

The question for “traditional” hotels is what they might be able to learn from the explosion of sharing – and how it can be applied to hotels that are not shared in the traditional sense.

Michael Joseph, co-founder and CEO of InvitedHome, said the service “combines the consistency and service of a fine hotel with beautiful private homes in great destinations.” The big distinguishing factor with Airbnb, said Joseph, is that “we are partners with our homeowners in generating revenue.” InvitedHome is now in six resort markets – including Breckenridge, Colo.;  Maui, Hawaii, and Santa Barbara, Calif. 

“We’re a hospitality company,” said Joseph, “and we stand behind our products unlike Airbnb and Vrbo, which are online marketplaces. Their homes are represented by the individual owner or small regional vacation management company. We are a national brand.”

InvitedHome operates like a hotel company, said Joseph – vetting all homes and having staff on the ground in each market to deal with issues and to help guests plan their vacation beyond the home stay. 

In the case of NightSwapping, homeowners accumulate points based on various criteria – including size of the residence, amenities, number of bedrooms, popularity of the area. etc. The points are actually a virtual currency called, yes, Nights. Homes are ranked on a scale from 1 to 7. If a homeowner has guests in for 7 nights in Standard 3 accommodations, they can redeem for 21 Nights whether that’s (roughly) 4 nights in a standard 5 accommodation or 10 nights in standard 2 accommodations. Clear?

And you don’t even have to put your place into the system. You can buy a Night directly for between $7 a night and $49, depending on its rating. Members never exchange money; all funds go to NightSwapping. Sometimes users will occupy an entire residence, sometimes a spare room. 

NightSwapping verifies the identity of all members, insures the host against property damage and will find new accommodations if the host doesn’t show up or if the accommodation was not accurately represented on the site. 

The big difference from Airbnb is that no money is exchanged between homeowner and guests, which in many cases will put the system under the regulatory radar that has been an obstacle for Airbnb. NightSwapping makes money through a connection fee of $9.90 to finalize a reservation (regardless of the length of the reservation and number of guests. )

The company started in France and now claims to be in 150 countries with 100,000 members. NightSwapping is mostly in urban areas and has a goal of a million users and 200,000 accommodations by 2018. 

What seems to make these services popular is the residential feel of the accommodations; the ability to stay in neighborhoods where hotels might not be located; and ease of transaction. And people just seem to get a kick out of sharing. Hotels already seem to be learning something from the sharing concept – offering a more homey feel where the hotel’s staff serve as the local guides; finding locations in more interesting locations and so forth. 

On the marketing front, it could be a tough pitch to position a hotel as being a “shared” residence. However, there must be relevant approaches. It may be a good idea to somehow make guests feel like they are guests in somebody’s home or provide some other kind of communal outreach. 

It’s still early in all this but it certainly would be worth the effort to look at what makes sharing work – and how smart marketing can be applied to that. 

Your parents would be proud.