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 the 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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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. | |||||||||||||||||||||
