Globe is a startup that let its customer rent a room hourly. The startup is previously named Recharge. However, it rebranded. The startup aims to let guests to sign up for short stays comfortably.
It may sound crazy, yet intriguing. It is now being backed by Y Combinator (YC). YC previously chased for Airbnb. Now, with Globe, it hopes to bring the startup anywhere near the same appeal.
The proposition of Globe agrees that homeowners or renter will easily rent out all parts of their house for some extra income. However, unlike Airbnb, with Globe, the host rents out his space for a smaller period of time.
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It sounds acceptable in our current world since people try to always maximize their underutilized asset. Moreover, if we are talking about prohibitively expensive cities like San Francisco, New York, or Hong Kong.
However, the idea of letting a stranger stay in your space for a shorter period of time will be terrifying for some people. Besides, getting sufficient hosts with nice places may become another challenge for Globe.
For instance, the place should not require someone to take some transportation to get to the place. If that happens, he may prefer to just stay at Starbucks instead.
What they offer now
It’s not just a branding exercise. Together with its new name, the startup is starting from scratch with a new cap table. Previously, Recharge had raised $10 million from investors.
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However, now, with YC backed up it is busy spreading the word in an effort to build up its burgeoning new marketplace of homes and apartments for rent. In their advertising, they say that a rate for people who host their entire home by the hour is $50 per hour. Meanwhile, for those who share less room, the rate is $25.
From that amount, Globe keeps 20% of the fee. Additionally, Globe is also promising $1 million in general liability insurance. Besides, the startup remains optimistic to beat Airbnb since they are more localized.
