The startup Recharge lets hotels rent out their rooms for short-term increments of minutes or hours at a time, advertising them as spaces to catch a “nap.” But now it plans to add private homes to its platform, following a $10 million funding round, as TechCrunch reported.
The San Francisco-based startup received its third venture capital round from Fifth Wall, JetBlue Technology Ventures and Binary Capital.
Similar to Hotel Tonight, the mobile app allows hotels to list their unbooked spaces to users looking for an ultra short-term stay.
Now the company is taking on Airbnb. But instead of booking a private home or room for a night like in traditional lodging, Recharge lets renters grab space for as little as 30 minutes for taking a nap.
The platform, which is already available in San Francisco and New York, will kick off its home rental venture with 1,000 listings in those cities, plus Los Angeles.
Additionally, the company says there are currently 80,000 people on the waiting list in hopes of receiving a deal in the country’s most expensive markets.
“To celebrate the launch and continue to expand our community, early Recharge hosts that are approved to be part of the Recharge 100 of each city will receive a guaranteed $1,000 per month,” the company told TechCrunch. “Recharge 100 is a group of early supporters and activists in each city that share their homes.”
Users who list their sought-after properties can earn more than $2,000 per month if they choose to take on cleaning services themselves. That may not be a bad deal, considering the cleanup needs are likely to be minimal as Recharge specializes in short-term stays without any overnights.
Recharge plans to extend the current flow of bookings, which finds users staying on average two-and-a-half hours in its spaces.
“What’s missing in a city is privacy. In your home right now you can shower, you can cry, you can do pushups, you can run around, you can meditate, pray… when you’re in the city there’s just… you have this mask on… and you can’t unmask and offices don’t allow you to unmask, because you’re being watched still,” says co-founder and CEO Manny Bamfo.
Since launching in 2016, Recharge has had over 50,000 bookings on its apps from hotels alone.