Airbnb has had a profound impact on the travel industry. Not only do travelers have more options, their dollar goes further getting them more space and perhaps more unique experiences. But Airbnb has not solved everyone’s travel pains and that’s where new entrants come in. It turns out the inventory on the short-term rental platform in many cases does not fit the budget requirements of some of today’s younger travelers.
An enterprising lawyer in France came at it from the supply side initially. She owned a lower budget flat in Paris and wanted to rent it out for the weekend, but it was below the quality threshold Airbnb approved of and she was too last minute. But she knew there was a market for her type of accommodations.
Recently, that lawyer turned entrepreneur, Aziza Chaouachi, raised a $14 million funding round led by Prime Ventures. She describes the communal approach as she originally pondered the situation, “We sat around with friends and talked about how we were broke but wanted to travel anyway and how we could fix that,” she said. “The target is people who want to travel but can’t afford to, with a strong community to help fix that equation.”
And today, with 65,000 members and flats in London, Paris, Amsterdam, Lisbon, Madrid and Rome, her company Leavy.co seems to be taking off. Chaouachi is targeting expansion into the U.S. by then of this year.
