Israeli rival to Airbnb, Roomixer, is planning to expand beyond its home market with Spain and the US in its sights.
Roomixer looks to take on airbnb with international expansion
Israeli rival to Airbnb, Roomixer, is planning to expand beyond its home market with Spain and the US in its sights.
The Tel Aviv holiday rental site says it offers rooms up to 60% cheaper than high profile Airbnb as well as offering increased revenues for hosts.
The site, which was relaunched in 2013 having previously focused on hotels, claims to have 2,000 properties in Tel Aviv and is about to roll out to other cities in Israel.
It says it is also eying overseas expansion with Barcelona and Miami the first destinations it plans to target.
founder Liran Rosenfeldn said: “We wanted to innovate the vacation rental market and improve the experience for both owners and guests.
“Roomixer’s pioneering method can offer guests the very same apartment as advertised on other websites for up to sixty per cent off and in return, hosts are able to fill apartments that would have otherwise sat vacant.”
Roomixer operates a reverse auction model under which travellers request their desired dates, accommodation criteria and maximum spend per night.
An algorithm then matches the request with available hosts, prompting them to respond and actively compete for the reservation with their best price in real-time.
The site claims this means property owners do not have to update their availability calendars and allows them to easily negotiate pricing when their apartments are empty.
Roomixer also enables hosts to act as agents and open auctions on behalf of overbooked guests, setting a maximum rental fee that includes a portion for their commission.
Listing properties on multiple sites often leads to overbooking problems in the rentals sector. So this process allows owners to earn additional revenue even when their properties are fully booked.
Roomixer takes 2.5% from every transaction completed on the site and offers a dedicated customer service team.
