Press
Crashpadder in the newsCrashpadder has already graced the hallowed pages of the Times, the Telegraph, the Guardian, the Mirror, the Sun and also the mighty BBC. 
If you think Crashpadder may be relevant for an upcoming piece you're putting together then please email us at press@crashpadder.com. We've got stats and case studies coming out of our ears at Crashpadder HQ! On the other hand if you're a Crashpadder member and would like to get in the news then please let us know. Journalists will often ask if they can interview Crashpadders about their experiences so you could find yourself on the broadsheets. Again, get in touch on press@crashpadder.com. Though we know it's not polite to blow your own horn we're pretty proud with the way our humble community has been received by the press - so 'toot toot toot'! Yes, we're from the Liza Minelli school of modesty, so below are some of the highlights:
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How to let a property: cash, company - why we love taking in lodgersZoe Dare Hall in the Telegraph - September 2009 "To let out spare rooms in your home is no longer a sign of desperation. It has become a social activity that brings in some handy extra cash." "The range of rental accommodation on offer is better than ever, from rooms in rural mansions to a Mayfair apartment on crashpadder.com where its musician owner lets out a double room for £70 a night - the most expensive property on the site. We've seen a lot of bankers join the site recently, so there are rooms in some great central London flats available," says Stephen Rapoport, founder of crashpadder.com. He's even found willing takers for a huge beanbag in his London flat at £10 a night." "We're also seeing a surprising number of people in their fifties or sixties whose children have left home but who don't want to downsize to smaller properties," he adds. "They like having other people in the house. Plus the extra cash is attractive." |
"Our guests have been tourists spanning all ages, single and couples, who stay from one to four nights - any more would be too much of an imposition - and we have enjoyed meeting every one of them so far," says David who, like all landlords on Crashpadder, takes payment in advance via the website or cash on arrival." | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Help to pay the mortgage by taking in a lodgerPaula Hawkins in The Times - August 2009 "Crashpadder.com was set up late last year by Stephen Rapoport, a former online marketing executive who spotted a gap in the market: an opportunity offering people with spare rooms to make a bit of cash to supplement the mortgage repayments, while offering everyone from backpackers to business travellers a cheap and comfortable alternative to hotels, hostels and bed & breakfasts. All you have to do is register with the site, which is free, and list your spare room (or spare sofabed in the living room; there are no strict rules on the quality of accommodation). You quote a price, which you determine, and wait for someone to book it. People looking for properties to rent must register their details, which is also free, and then can start searching for an appropriate room. Although the site was set up less than a year ago, it lists 1,500 rooms in 40 countries worldwide, although just over 1,000 of these are in the UK and, as you might expect, are concentrated in the big cities - London, Manchester and Birmingham have the most properties.
"When I first started the site I expected most of the guests to be backpackers and the hosts to be people in their early twenties," Rapoport says. In fact, the profile has been slightly different. Most of our hosts are young professionals in their late twenties and thirties. We have a lot of domestic business travellers, probably because businesses are cutting back on expenses. Through our site you can get a room in Central London for as little as £20 a night; even a budget hotel will cost up to £100." More and more of Crashpadders' hosts (known as "Padders"; the guests are "Crashers") hail from the financial sector. "The finance sector has been one of the worst hit in the past 12 months," Rapoport says. "So many bankers are making use of the excess space in their swanky homes as cheap hotel alternatives. We've seen a 17 per cent increase in hosts who work in the finance industry. Many have flats in desirable areas, such as Chelsea." |
"Guy Phillips, 26, who works for Santander Corporate Banking, is just such a homeowner and is one of Crashpadder's hosts from the financial sector. He and his girlfriend, Katharine Le Hardy, 28, a professional artist, decided to rent out the spare room in their two-bedroom flat in Earlsfield, South London, in January this year. "We did have a tenant, a friend who was renting out the room, but we decided that we would like to have the spare room free on weekends so that family and friends could come to stay," Phillips says. "We decided that short-term lets would be ideal; we could rent the place during the week to earn a bit of extra money, while keeping weekends free." While the idea of letting a stranger into your home is not for everyone, Phillips says that he feels confident that the payment process - which requires a full payment by credit card in advance, or a 10 per cent credit card deposit followed by a cash payment - provided adequate security. "The banker side of me assessed the risk. Because the money is being paid upfront, there is a credit or a debit card trail. It's quite difficult to set up a bank account; it's unlikely that people would go to all that trouble - there are easier ways to rob someone" However, having said that, he and his girlfriend have not accepted all reservations. "We're quite picky," he says. "A lot depends on whether we are feeling friendly and sociable. We are not dependent on the extra money, so we have turned down a couple of characters." | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Is there any room to improve your finances?Esther Shaw in The Observer - January 2009 Cash in by allowing travellers to stay with you for a night or two - that's the idea behind crashpadder.com, an "online peer-to-peer accommodation website". |
Individuals can list short -term "crash pads" - from a spare bedroom to "an air-bed in a corridor". Search for accommodation by location, date, comfort and price; "crash pads" start from £10, with a typical London room costing £35. "Crashpadder is a global community which enables travellers to stay with like-minded people for a fair price, and enables hosts to earn cash from their extra space," says Stephen Rapoport who came up with the idea. "It gives everyone a chance to meet new people without the cost of a hotel." | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Survive the credit crunch: turn your home into a hotelThe Daily Mail Online - December 2008 Hard-up holidaymakers are being invited to beat the credit crunch by raising money for trips by turning parts of their home into accommodation for travellers. The "crash pad" scheme involves people going through a website to offer accommodation ranging from a spare bedroom to an airbed in a corridor. Hosts and guests can be paired according to what suits them. Travellers can search for accommodation by location, date, comfort level, price and even if the host property is a family home or city centre apartment. The idea comes from Stephen Rapoport, who has launched the website CrashPadder.com. He said: "People are finding it harder to afford their mortgage or monthly rent, and at the same time finding the cost of accommodation prohibits them from travelling. I hope my idea will help to ease this financial strain." He went on: "Both domestic and international travel is increasing in the UK, but many people find that accommodation choices are limited to expensive hotels or uncomfortable hostels. |
"I am offering the chance for low-priced accommodation for travellers and a chance for hosts to make some money." Hosts can even offer extras such as wireless internet, breakfast or parking space to add value to their room. Crash pads start from £10 with a typical room in London costing £35. | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Let out a spare room and let the money roll inIf you have a spare room to let - or even a spare sofa - you could be sitting on a gold mine, says Caroline McGhie in the Telegraph - November 2009 Need a room for the night and don't want to pay hotel rates? Then try sleeping in the spare room of an ex-banker. It is a sure sign of the times we live in that finance professionals are joining the new and burgeoning world of casual letting. It isn't b&b exactly. It is much more hip, more international, website-based and flexible. But it fills a gap in the pay packet and allows owners to make their properties work for them. Ian Hardon, 28, works in corporate lending and has got a full-time tenant in his five-bedroom converted textile warehouse in Stoke Newington. He also lets two rooms through the website www.Crashpadder.com to people who need a bed in London. "I don't want tenants but I have bags of room. It's fun. I get to meet new people who are on holiday, travelling or on business, and I get an extra £200 a month to spend." The Crashpadder enterprise is the brainchild of Stephen Rapoport, who used to work as an executive consultant but lost his job in the City. People all over the world are now using his website to rent out spare rooms, sofas or just bean bags. "We have seen a 17 per cent increase in hosts who work in the finance industry. Many of these guys have flats or houses in very desirable areas such as Chelsea." |
Stephen has more than 1,200 people offering beds in Britain, and a growing number in 42 countries worldwide. "We launched last October and now have 600 rooms in London alone at an average of £30 a night." He owns a two-bedroom flat in Lavender Hill at Clapham Junction, where he has a full-time lodger in one bedroom and a succession of crashpadders on the sofa in his living room. "At £10 a night I think I am the cheapest in London. But I use them for market research. There are two types of guest: those who don't want hostels but are used to shoestring travel and still want the fun of the experience, and business travellers. Some people put on a full hotel experience with freshly laundered sheets, others tell people to bring a sleeping bag. You offer what you want, charge what you want and the market decides if you get takers." The beauty of crashpadder is that guests prepay by credit card, which means that their identity and home address is verified. | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Getting a lodger to help with the mortgageWould you let guests stay on your sofa or spare bed for a little extra cash? The Times - January 2009 Are you feeling the pinch yet? Do you spend your evenings swaddled in jumpers, rather than cranking up the heating, or find yourself postponing essential repairs? With the economic outlook for the next 12 months relentlessly gloomy, more and more owners are looking for ways to make their home help pay its way. The prospect of a hundred pounds or so a month in return for giving up the futon in the living room of their south London home - and their privacy - led Will Robson and Josie Anderson to register on a new website, www.crashpadder.com. The recently engaged couple, who bought their one-bedroom attic flat in Brixton for £200,000 a year ago, have travelled a lot, sleeping on other people's floors, and were happy to open their home to strangers. "We charge £30 per night," says Robson, 27, a video producer, who has so far played host to one overnight guest, a businessman from out of town. "We will do it when it is convenient. It's not just about the money." Although Robson and Anderson, a 26-year-old web editor, are not expecting their futon to prove a significant source of income, many more of their friends are. Thanks to word-of-mouth recommendations, a growing number of people are signing up. "There were 100 rooms listed at the end of 2008 - now there are almost 300 around the world," says Stephen Rapoport, 27, the website's founder. He describes it as the perfect solution for these credit-crunched times. Crashpadder.com takes up the free-spirited hippie ethos of sites such as Couchsurfing.com and adds a financial incentive, allowing the owners of a spare bed, sofa bed or even an air bed on the landing to make some cash. Prices start at £10 for the most basic place to sleep. Guests must provide valid credit-card details to book via the site, which charges 10% commission. |
"It's a tough time financially for everyone," says Rapoport, a digital marketing consultant. "A little extra income is to be welcomed." Which is why Tom Kennedy, 55, a physiotherapist who lives on the Isle of Wight and likes to be tucked up in bed at 10pm, charges £16 for his spare room. And why the empty-nesters in Woldingham, Surrey, have decided to let their spare rooms now their youngest child is at university. At £70 a night, this is the most expensive option on the site, but the price includes dinner and breakfast. It's not just homeowners looking for help with the mortgage who are signing up. "Half of the hosts in the UK are tenants," Rapoport says. "They must have permission from the landlord, because earning money from letting out rooms could be classified as a sublet and may leave you in breach of contract. It shows that everyone is looking for ways of making money." Hosts should also consult their insurance policy to see if they are covered, or at least make sure that offering such a service does not invalidate any claim. Those offering accommodation can vet potential visitors by checking their site profiles, which come with feedback ratings, as on eBay, or look them up on Facebook or elsewhere on the web. guess what happened to Josie... As we have grown we have needed more and more help to make the site the kind of place you want to be. I remembered meeting Josie for this article and it was obvious that she a smart cookie, loves the web and the whole Crashpadder concept so I asked her in to our little Brixton office for a chat. She is now our resident Chatty Ninja! | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Does filling the empty nest make financial sense?Kevin Peachey Personal finance reporter, BBC News - February 2010 When the children have grown up and moved away, many parents have plans for the rooms that become vacant in the family home. But it seems that the lack of mouths to feed has ruffled the feathers of these so-called "empty nesters". Some are turning to the internet to find interesting travellers happy to fill the space. And a growing number are recognising the earning potential of these unused bedrooms. Of course, the existence of lodgers is nothing new, but websites are now offering residents the chance to take in travellers more frequently and for just a few days. Company Christina Spencer, 52, has four children who are grown up and have moved on. Her house in Princes Risborough, Buckinghamshire, which she shares with her husband and two cats, has views over the Chilterns and a couple of spare rooms. It has been home for 16 years. "I work from home, so it is nice to have someone along in the evening," she says. She advertises a double room with a television and internet access on a website that matches visitors to spare rooms. She charges £20 a night for the room - plus £5 for an evening meal. "It is pleasant to have somebody there, and a few extra pounds always helps - but money is not the primary motivation," she says. A sociable visitor with a story or two to tell and who leaves the room neat and tidy is the perfect fit, she says. |
While good company - rather than cash - is the stimulus for Mrs Spencer, other homeowners have found that the financial crisis means they are looking for ways close to home to make money. Some - especially younger homeowners - who bought when it was easy to borrow 100% mortgages and jobs were safer, are now aware that renting out a room can help pay the bills. According to Mrs Spencer, the internet has proved to be a vital tool in bringing landlord and tenant together - even for just a few nights. 'Low-cost' Stephen Rapoport lost his City consultancy job, with a six-figure salary, during the recession and decided to turn his "bedroom hobby" into a business venture. Inspired by his experience in Sydney, when he could not find a hotel room during the Olympics and ended up paying to sleep in a friend's spare room, he set up Crashpadder.com. The website matches guests to rooms offered by "hospitable locals". It now advertises rooms in 48 countries, including £15-a-night accommodation in London. Guests search the site for suitable accommodation, the host checks the guest's profile on the website and decides whether to accept the booking - and the Crashpadder team take 10% of the fee for matching them up. The business - run by a team of three all aged in their 20s - is yet to make a profit, but has won some venture capital backing and, according to Mr Rapoport, is growing by 100% a month. Far from attracting backpackers and students looking for a cheap place to stay, he says that the average guest is aged 38 and 50% of them are travelling for business. Most, he says, want to escape "sterile, overpriced and environmentally unsound" hotel rooms, and Mr Rapoport hopes the internet generation will come to the website which is similar in design to a social networking site. "We have plans for forums and travel guides written by our members," he explains. Miles Quest, spokesman for the British Hospitality Association, says homestay websites are still so niche that they do not offer a great threat to hotels or guesthouses. He says the licensed hospitality industry offers more service and more extensive facilities, which make rooms more expensive. | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Crashpadder Creates Bed-and-Breakfasts for the Recession EraLauren Cooper, Company News, Technology, Economy, People, AOL.com - March 2010 If the high cost of hotel rooms has kept you from booking a vacation or business trip, Crashpadder might be your answer. It's a recession-born web-based business that matches travellers in need of affordable accommodation with homeowners who have spare rooms to rent. "Crashpadder offers people a way to save money when they travel, and also gives people a chance to earn money at a time when many are worrying about how to pay the mortgage and how to pay for vacations," says Stephen Rapoport, Crashpadder.com's 28-year-old founder. In London, where even a four-star hotel room can cost £200 ($300) per night, Crashpadder.com has about a thousand rooms available at costs between £15 to £100 ($23 to $150). Booking through Crashpadder, Rapoport estimates, is 83% cheaper than booking a three- to five-star hotel. Rapoport hatched the idea for Crashpadder several years ago in an Australian pub, where he was tending bar during an Australasia tour. He mentioned that he couldn't afford to stay at a local hostel, and one of his co-workers offered him a room for a small fee. Other staffers soon followed suit, offering spare rooms to customers for cash. Using this model, Rapoport used his expertise as a new-media consultant to set up shop back in London. At first, it was just a hobby he ran out of his bedroom, while he also headed a consultancy advising clients like Santander, Lloyds, British Airways, and Virgin Atlantic about the Internet. But then the global financial crisis swept away many of his most lucrative consulting contracts. "I lost about 50% of my income in a day," he says. But a cash injection from a private venture capitalist soon turned Crashpadder into his full time job. Crashpadder doesn't charge hosts to list their properties, nor does he sell advertising, although it does collect a 10% fee from each booking. To make a decent living off low-budget listings, Rapoport has to attract a lot of business. In true startup fashion, he keeps his operating costs low: He maintains a staff of only three people including himself, running the business out of a converted shopping center in Brixton, a transitional area of South London. |
Looking Ahead to 2012 If Rapoport hopes to get rich off the enterprise, the 2012 Summer Games may be his best bet. London expects about 2 million people to visit, and they'll all need somewhere to sleep. The Olympic committee alone may book 50,000 hotel rooms per night for months, according to some reports -- and London has only an estimated 100,000 decent hotel rooms. "There will definitely be an accommodation shortage, and we will be well-placed," says Rapoport, who expects to have about 4,000 rooms in London by then. While his business fills a hole in the marketplace, it also reflects his disdain for chain hotels. "They are sterile, cookie-cutter, very expensive," he says. "Even a cheap hotel will overcharge you for breakfast, a drink in the bar, internet, and you end up feeling a bit like cattle, even like cattle being milked. You go to another country to eat the food and to see the sights, but also to experience the local culture -- and you don't experience any culture of any kind, let alone local, in a chain hotel." In his younger days, Rapoport was a devotee of Couchsurfing, which he calls part of the "free stuff" movement. Couchsurfing is an idealistic nonprofit service that arranges home-stays for free. "Our mission as an organization," its site says, "is to create inspiring experiences: cross-cultural encounters that are fun, engaging, and illuminating." | ||||||||||||||||||||
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Website of the week: www.crashpadder.comFred Mawer, in the Mail Online - March 2010 This week's website is a simple but clever idea. Basically, it uses the Internet to link up "padders" who fancy making a bit of dosh renting out their spare room or bed, with "crashers" who are after an inexpensive night or two's kip in someone else's home. Putting one and one together: Crashpadder offers cheap rooms for those in need of somewhere to, well, crash Padders post up details about their accommodation - location, room type, whether smoking is allowed, distance to public transport etc - on the site. They also provide a brief personal profile, including age, profession and typical bedtime, and many also supply photos of themselves, their house, and/or the bedroom being offered. As a crasher, you use the search engine to locate what you're looking for - say a room in Brighton, Liverpool, New York, Sydney. When you've found somewhere promising, you can email the padder if you need more information than what's provided. If you want to book, the padder will then check out the profile you've put up on the website - again, your age, profession, bedtime, plus perhaps likes and dislikes, photos, and links to Twitter and Facebook accounts if you have them. If they like the look of you, then you're all set to book - and you pay a deposit or the full amount by credit card. |
Strengths It's a cheap way to stay - I'm looking at a nice-sounding place in Brighton for £30 a night, and in Sydney for £35. The website is well designed, easy to use, has good search and filter options, and a fun, engaging tone. There's a good choice of places to stay in many parts of the UK - over 1,400 rooms across the country - as well as a useful amount of accommodation offered in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada and the US. You'll also find a few padders in out-of-the-way spots like Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. Weaknesses The credit card payment system ensures some level of security, but there's clearly still an element of risk, both for padders and crashers. Much is made of members' reliability ratings, but as most appear to be 100 per cent, it's not so useful. Also, in many cases, padders simply haven't posted enough information, or photos, about themselves and their set-ups to make me confident enough to want to book. Ratings Inspiring: 3/5 Read the full article here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-1262610/Website-week-www-crashpadder-com.html#ixzz0kJj7Fc9T | ||||||||||||||||||||
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How to turn your spare room into a crash pad for touristsFelicity Cannell in the Independent, May 2010 Crashpadder.com is an internet site dedicated to just that - pads to crash in. The brainchild of former online marketing consultant Stephen Rapoport, the company was conceived 10 years ago during his university years. Travelling to Sydney during the Olympics he found nearly all the hotels were full where there was any space, the prices were eye-watering. He found a job in a pub and kipped in a colleague's spare room, paying a low weekly rent. He saved money and his host earned some extra cash. The other staff in the pub began offering their own spare rooms to desperate tourists. But it was the credit crunch that launched Crashpadder. In 2008, after losing most of his marketing contracts, Mr Rapoport retreated to his own spare room, running the business from there for a year before moving into a small office in London. "It took off so quickly. We've now got rooms in 800 places in 52 countries, but most, about 60 per cent, are in the UK. We've 1,100 rooms in London alone, ranging from £15 to £100 per night." A Crashpadder host lists his or her room with photographs and as much personal information as possible, including date of birth, profession, and maybe a link to Facebook or Twitter pages. Potential guests send a request to book the room, with similar personal information, to build up a mutual sense of security, and the host can then accept or reject. Payment is by credit card, held by Crashpadder, and released after the guest has left. The site is free to list on, but the company takes 10 per cent of any bookings. Hosts are given loose guidelines over what to charge by looking at what else is listed. Mr Rapoport says, "Room rates aren't vetted by us. Our community of users does that. No one will book if it's too expensive. If it's too cheap the reverse might happen and the owner will be inundated." So what's the advantage of Crashpadder over hotels or registered B&Bs? Price is an obvious factor, but the sluggish economy is affecting all sectors as Carly Gotz, group director of sales and marketing at Great Hotels Organisation points out. "These days even luxury can come cheap. There are some amazing hotel deals out there." But not necessarily when demand is high. Mr Rapoport says travellers stranded in the UK by Iceland's volcanic ash were housed by Crashpadder hosts. The London Olympics is still an unknown quantity in terms of accommodation, but two million visitors are expected. The capital has 100,000 registered three and four-star hotels. Hoteliers and holiday companies rub their hands with glee during prime-time sporting and cultural events - and across the country the calendar never stops. In Cheltenham this weekend for instance, visitors to the jazz festival have filled many of the local hotels. Crashpadder has double rooms within walking distance of events for £15. That's less than a quarter of the price of the cheapest hotel. |
You don't even need to live in a holiday hot spot. Forty-four per cent of guests using the site, who give a reason for their trip, indicate business travel. "It's because of the personal touch," says Mr Rapoport. "The first time I travelled on expenses I was in a five-star hotel. My boss said, 'You'll absolutely love it - for about 24 hours. And then you'll just feel lonely.' And that's exactly what happened." Expense accounts are no longer what they were. The reduction in job security mean contractors are often crisscrossing the country following the jobs - working in Birmingham during the week, living in Brighton at the weekend. Budget hotels can be pretty ghastly, often with no bar and certainly no room service, but at least you know what to expect, knowing that there'll be someone on reception, that you'll be dealt with in a professional, albeit impersonal, way. "Crashpadder is travelling with a heart," says Mr Rapoport. But, says Ms Gotz, "Despite what some people may think, staying in a hotel doesn't mean your stay will be impersonal, especially when staying in an independently run hotel. Many of our member hotels offer personal touches such as welcome drinks and a newspaper." Renting out a room is becoming more commonplace, with government initiatives aimed at easing the rental market in key areas. The rent-a-room scheme allows £85 per week tax-free income, and Crashpadder hosts will qualify for this. "Crashpadder's obviously great for a casual income, but a lodger would be an easier option in terms of the amount of work you have to do," says Matt Hutchinson from spareroom.co.uk. Travellers have a wide variety of needs. There are hosts, from young singletons to empty nesters, and guests, from backpackers to business people which Crashpadder will suit. You meet people you otherwise wouldn't have contact with Elaine Arthur has been hosting Crashpadders for eight months in her flat in west London. She has found having short-stay guests a good way to plug any income gap. "And it's fun. You meet people you wouldn't otherwise have any contact with. Last week I hosted a Russian piano teacher. I've had an American conductor who stayed for a few nights while she was attending auditions at the Royal Academy, and a masters student from New York who needed a place to stay while she looked for a flat of her own. Tourists are always enthusiastic, coming back after a day out and telling you all about it. And of course, they get local knowledge from me." A crucial consideration is personal safety. "One chap emailed me at short notice, saying he was desperate. He turned up just after midnight rather worse for wear, but very apologetic. I suddenly thought 'am I insane?' A complete stranger sleeping in the next room, without a lock on my door. But all was OK. He'd paid Crashpadder with a credit card, and they'd checked him out." Read the full article here: http://www.independent.co.uk/money/spend-save/how-to-turn-your-spare-room-into-a-crash-pad-for-tourists-1960125.html | ||||||||||||||||||||
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What our members are saying...
Many thanks to everyone who's ever sent us feeback, whether it was good or bad. We haven't put the not so glowing stuff up here but rest assured we've learned from it and it's helped to make Crashpadder better. If you'd like to share some constructive criticism with us - or just tell us you think we're super then please mail us at hello@crashpadder.com. | |||||||||||||||||||||
