Start a Blockchain powered short-term apartment rental platform

Ever wanted to build an AirBnB like platform, but didn’t know how? Now you easily can build a decentralized, short-term apartment rental platform with Blockchain!
Did you know? A lot of travellers are now open to using platforms like Airbnb while they travel to different countries, rather than staying in hotels, etc. A service like Airbnb exclusively for cryptocurrencies owners is an exciting opportunity for those apartment owners to make money easily.
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[item title=”Why should you start a Blockchain powered apartment rental platform?“]The participants in the platform are the hosts who offer services, and the guests who consume those services. Both parties are rewarded for joining the network and for the reviews that make the network fully operational and working.
Blockchain-based apartment rental platform is most importantly designed for those local hosts who shared their spaces for tourists. This community of local hosts is referred to as the early adopters of Airbnb like services which now focus mainly on sharks of accommodations like the hotels and apartments.
The rental platform uses the smart contracts mechanism to avoid disputes in transactions between the host and the guest. This way, it overcomes the risk of not having a middleman or an intermediary platform governing the payment or settling the dispute.
The financial intermediary like Airbnb can be removed, given that, a ledger is available to maintain records of hosts, and the guests are given edit permissions to the ledger. The guests can pay their hosts directly and the smart contracts assist them in doing that. Smart contracts help payments and refunds as applicable. The hosts are thereby valued by their guests and a bad review would put the hosts and their business at stake.[/item]
[item title=”How do you make money from the blockchain powered short-term apartment rental platform?“]The travellers’ rented accommodation is a thriving business, for people who travel on a shoestring budget or to anyone who likes to travel to multiple countries on a fixed budget.
As a platform owner, once you sign up apartment owners, and have users, you could charge the apartment owners to pay for the listing and also get a small percentage of the fee for every transaction done on the platform.
As an apartment provider, once their apartment is listed, users can view and book the apartment for their short stay. The payment would be made through a cryptocurrency supported by the platform and the apartment provider gets paid.[/item]
[item title=”What are the Features of the blockchain powered short-term apartment rental platform?“]The blockchain powered short-term apartment rental platform must include features that would make the platform safe for everyone using it. Safety and convenience are of prime importance.
Know Your Customers (KYC) Verification module A strict Know Your Customer (KYC) module ensures that both providers and tenants are verified by the platform owner, so everything remains transparent.
Rental listings A clear rental listing page that shows all the necessary details that the apartment provider wants to communicate to the travellers renting the place beforehand. This ensures that there is no miscommunication and reduces the chances of a bad experience for everyone.
Elastic powered search An Elastic powered search engine that is built into the site can be a powerful tool to help those who are looking to rent a place. If the listings are more accurate and easier to find, the experience of booking through the platform would make the users come back.
A feature rich easy to use Provider portal You can’t expect everyone to understand technology. A simple and straightforward onboarding experience for a provider would make sure that they can successfully go through with the verification and listing process. The success is in the simplicity.
Transparent payouts It’s not just the technology end of it, but having an overall transparent payment process which pays the providers on time would make sure they trust you.
Dispute mechanism Disputes do happen in any people oriented business. Handling it with a transparent and efficient process ensures that the platform is healthy and trustworthy.
Escrow A host is valued more when his transactional history is a clear chit and has clean records of reputational good services. This information is usually under the custody of an intermediary or a middleman (E.g.: Airbnb) who also is an escrow agent holding the payment made for the service. The agent releases the payment made by the guest to the owner until the service/travel/stay is complete. One big advantage using this approach is that you can always be sure of getting a better service and a worry-free trip.[/item]
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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
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[item title=”What is a Blockchain?“] The blockchain is a network of nodes (devices with an internet connection). It is a distributed and decentralized ledger technology which was re-introduced to support transactions of a digital asset called Bitcoin cryptocurrency. Now blockchain is used by many industries to implement their online businesses on a trust network like blockchain which keeps track of every single transaction and thus will eliminate redundancy, or duplication. [/item]
[item title=”What is Airbnb?“] Airbnb is a short-term apartment booking platform for travellers. Airbnb allows apartment owners to rent their space for verified and trusted travellers on a shared or exclusive basis for a limited period of time. Most travellers prefer Airbnb and other platforms which offer the similar facility to direct booking on traditional Hotel Booking Systems which may be too expensive. [/item]
[item title=”What is Initial Coin Offerings (ICO)?“] ICO is a mechanism or an event which is initiated by a company to raise funds for its new venture. The company sells a part of the stake like in Initial Public Offerings to gather investors to support the new project. In ICOs, the participants can be anyone who is interested to invest fiat currency or a few popular cryptocurrencies like bitcoin in the project and in return they are paid tokens, the native cryptocurrencies of the project under construction. The intent of such events is to release their tokens on a larger scale and also to raise enough funds for the new program. [/item]
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