Travel company

Hi guys so i got this business idea and wanted to know other people's opinion on it. So the idea is to make a website similar to facebook and homeaway.com. The landlords can create a profile page of their own and show what they got to offer to travelers. It can be a host family for exchange students/ study abroad students, they can rent it out for travelers who wants to only spend a week or a month, they can even post their house to rent out for a year, or they can even choose the home swap option like on homeexchange.com. It will be up to the landlords to decide. I know landlords will usually like to give their available room to a person who will sign a 1 year lease contract at least but if they can not find the person to rent it out to; they can get any traveler who is willing to stay for a week or a month and get money while looking for a tenant. When people sign lease they usually move in within a week or a month anyway which is most likely the time the traveler would leave. The travelers would also be able to make a profile page to show their pictures and blog about their travel experience. But yea this is just the basic general plan of the business and i just wanted to know do you guys think people will sign up or would most people be afraid of a scam?

HI TL

This is a crowded market place so you have to think about what is your USP.

If you are going for the single room aspect for a week np as it will be normaly be furnished but if it is the whole house for a month is there going to be furniture there as the last thing the landlord wants is a load of backpackers slumming it or a load of backpackers trashing there furniture.

site development costs and this is from experience of a simlilar type of product but in a difference market space. The bigger the content management system the bigger the costs. if you want a very simple single page with a couple of pics the costs is not too bad 30k'ish if you want a full blown CMS with numerous pictures and link and reviews pages etc etc you are talking 100k

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Agree with Stavors, saturated market, does notmean it will not work though, the idea is a solid one, but you will be pooling a lot of money in it to get noticed, SEO and PPC etc, but as Stavros has looked at the cost of a properly developed site, I would seriously take that into consideration too, but when you can turn that into a much higher reward, with a little due dilligence, belief etc, you could be onto a winner here!

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Hi TL, welcome aboard!!

Sounds a pretty interesting idea.

As the guys said before, it's a pretty busy market. Doesn't mean it wouldn't work, just means you need to do it better.

Biggest problem you will have is once your site is up and running, is convincing people to sign up.

So make it 100% free, plan you business model around keeping it free for 2 years, build up your name and reputation, and market it heavily for 2 years, forums, blogs, link building etc.

If you can afford to do this, you could be on a winner. So sit down and analyze your budget, factor in hosting, devlopment, money to live on for 2 years, and if it adds up, or you can do this in the background to a day job, go for it!!!

Long term, you can charge landlords for advets, dicreet banner placement and maybe some adsense or affiliate if the traffic is worthwhile.

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thx for the info guys

Thats what we are all here for Buddy, just ask!

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