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The business model doesn't seem honest. I doubt they really want to buy 3M homes and sell that to 6 people at 500k each. There isn't much of a market for that.

The business model doesn't seem honest. I doubt they really want to buy 3M homes and sell that to 6 people at 500k each. There isn't much of a market for that. More likely they want to find a way to circumvent short term rental laws and then charge a premium over Airbnb for short term rental access in locations that Airbnb cannot rent. On paper that company could be worth billions. Then they sell it before investors realize the legal tricks they used only work for a short while.

ttul 5y ago
It’s definitely no substitute for AirBnB. They’re buying houses worth millions and assisting groups of people to buy them together. The truth is that most people don’t spend that much time in their second home, so a 1/4 or 1/8 share is likely more than enough. In Whistler, BC, such fractional ownership is common. And it’s true ownership on title, rather than a form of rental like a time share.
- ajsnigrutin 5y ago
  But you don't buy a second home to timeshare it... you buy it so it's yours, filled with your stuff when you come there and always accessible. 500K for basically an airbnb, where i have to pack all my stuff, to go there for a week, then pack stuff, to go home is pretty useless to me.
  - slownews45 5y ago
    There is a huge market for this. People have been doing informal versions of this for a long time. ie, a well off family will have a second home, but it's actually shared between 6 families in the family (second generation) who use it in various ways. Grandparents go up, kids visit with grandkids, then kids and grandkids stay etc. Boats are often bought in a partnership - and frankly it's more fun becuase your budget for ownership is literally 4x - so you can do / pay for whatever, cleaning, maintenance etc. Various forms of fractional aircraft ownership. Folks with money are not total idiots. A fixed asset sitting is a waste. In the house case, you want a place that becomes a regular part of your routine, a place your kids know, a place your friends start to know. 1/4 ownership is not 1 week a year. It is months in the year. You know the local restaurants, the hikes and bike rides etc. I've independently been sent hey, look at this place, from two different people now who are on this app. You can get a MUCH nicer place than you can get alone for $400K. A place you could have a big group over to visit etc, a place for families to get together.
    - ghaff 5y ago
      The generational house is probably different from something like this though. Even if all the second cousins don't necessarily really know each other, a lot of the owners will have grown up going to the house starting as kids. And, as you say, families will get together etc. That seems a rather different situation from buying a luxury timeshare with strangers.
      - ajsnigrutin 5y ago
        Yep, with family, you can live your stuff there... clothes, fishing poles, boat, even your toothbrush, and not be afraid, someone will do something really wrong with it.
        ghaff 5y ago
        Even if that's probably a somewhat idealistic view of many large extended families :-), there is shared context and history which makes it at least feel different.
      - slownews45 5y ago
        You don't always hang with family, but you get a part time use of a house that is a consistent place - that really is very nice and I think a lot of folks laughing at this idea do not understand either the market or attraction in what they are offering. Do you pay $3M or $500K. That is the question you need to ask. Is it worth $2.5M to have more than your standard locker of crap at the vacation house? Even family houses - generally you need to keep your personal crap to a minimum, everything is shared. You can buy a bogie board for everyone, but the folks on here talking about how they need to fill a $3M 6 bedroom house with their personal crap - this is not for you. Most of us can get buy much more simply. This is why I'm glad we can let market decide not folks on HN. Almost every neat thing, from iphone to this would just be poo poo'ed away.
        bicknergseng 5y ago
        >$3M or $500K Alternatively, renting or staying in a hotel/resort is _significantly_ cheaper than $500k, even amortized over 10 years. TBD how much you can sell your timeshare back for at the end, but I'd argue the risk + the significant upfront capital + not getting to put your crap in your expensive rental™ makes it a tough sell for all but a small niche. >let market decide not folks on HN I'd point out that a number of the threads on this are more upset that this seems to be a timeshare system that dodges regulations around timeshares, just as Uber is a cab system that dodges cab regulations and AirBnB is a BnB/home rental. It's more anger that these startups raise massive cash to distort the markets in ways that have some advantages but aren't always long-term positive, and it takes regulation too long to catch up. Comparing regulation dodging timeshares to iPhones feels disingenuous.
  - bwship 5y ago
    If you own it, you can keep a few sets of cargo shorts there and some at home. That is the nice part of multi-home living. A boy can dream....
kristjansson 5y ago
The "homeowners can 'gift' stays to 'friends and family'" [second scare quotes added] quote in the middle, plus the app to organize bookings hints at the direction they're going to take this. You're not buying a very expensive timeshare, you're buying a 1/8th share in a revenue-generating asset. These aren't paying guests, they're friends of the owners who have been gifted a stay. Turns out, though, that a neighborhood of (by definition) multi-millionaires can mount a more effective defense than the markets airbnb started in.
- vineyardmike 5y ago
  > app to organize bookings hints at the direction they're going to take this Can you elaborate why the app hints at this?

ttul 5y ago

It’s definitely no substitute for AirBnB. They’re buying houses worth millions and assisting groups of people to buy them together. The truth is that most people don’t spend that much time in their second home, so a 1/4 or 1/8 share is likely more than enough. In Whistler, BC, such fractional ownership is common. And it’s true ownership on title, rather than a form of rental like a time share.

ajsnigrutin 5y ago
But you don't buy a second home to timeshare it... you buy it so it's yours, filled with your stuff when you come there and always accessible. 500K for basically an airbnb, where i have to pack all my stuff, to go there for a week, then pack stuff, to go home is pretty useless to me.
- slownews45 5y ago
  There is a huge market for this. People have been doing informal versions of this for a long time. ie, a well off family will have a second home, but it's actually shared between 6 families in the family (second generation) who use it in various ways. Grandparents go up, kids visit with grandkids, then kids and grandkids stay etc. Boats are often bought in a partnership - and frankly it's more fun becuase your budget for ownership is literally 4x - so you can do / pay for whatever, cleaning, maintenance etc. Various forms of fractional aircraft ownership. Folks with money are not total idiots. A fixed asset sitting is a waste. In the house case, you want a place that becomes a regular part of your routine, a place your kids know, a place your friends start to know. 1/4 ownership is not 1 week a year. It is months in the year. You know the local restaurants, the hikes and bike rides etc. I've independently been sent hey, look at this place, from two different people now who are on this app. You can get a MUCH nicer place than you can get alone for $400K. A place you could have a big group over to visit etc, a place for families to get together.
  - ghaff 5y ago
    The generational house is probably different from something like this though. Even if all the second cousins don't necessarily really know each other, a lot of the owners will have grown up going to the house starting as kids. And, as you say, families will get together etc. That seems a rather different situation from buying a luxury timeshare with strangers.
    - ajsnigrutin 5y ago
      Yep, with family, you can live your stuff there... clothes, fishing poles, boat, even your toothbrush, and not be afraid, someone will do something really wrong with it.
      - ghaff 5y ago
        Even if that's probably a somewhat idealistic view of many large extended families :-), there is shared context and history which makes it at least feel different.
    - slownews45 5y ago
      You don't always hang with family, but you get a part time use of a house that is a consistent place - that really is very nice and I think a lot of folks laughing at this idea do not understand either the market or attraction in what they are offering. Do you pay $3M or $500K. That is the question you need to ask. Is it worth $2.5M to have more than your standard locker of crap at the vacation house? Even family houses - generally you need to keep your personal crap to a minimum, everything is shared. You can buy a bogie board for everyone, but the folks on here talking about how they need to fill a $3M 6 bedroom house with their personal crap - this is not for you. Most of us can get buy much more simply. This is why I'm glad we can let market decide not folks on HN. Almost every neat thing, from iphone to this would just be poo poo'ed away.
      - bicknergseng 5y ago
        >$3M or $500K Alternatively, renting or staying in a hotel/resort is _significantly_ cheaper than $500k, even amortized over 10 years. TBD how much you can sell your timeshare back for at the end, but I'd argue the risk + the significant upfront capital + not getting to put your crap in your expensive rental™ makes it a tough sell for all but a small niche. >let market decide not folks on HN I'd point out that a number of the threads on this are more upset that this seems to be a timeshare system that dodges regulations around timeshares, just as Uber is a cab system that dodges cab regulations and AirBnB is a BnB/home rental. It's more anger that these startups raise massive cash to distort the markets in ways that have some advantages but aren't always long-term positive, and it takes regulation too long to catch up. Comparing regulation dodging timeshares to iPhones feels disingenuous.
- bwship 5y ago
  If you own it, you can keep a few sets of cargo shorts there and some at home. That is the nice part of multi-home living. A boy can dream....

kristjansson 5y ago

The "homeowners can 'gift' stays to 'friends and family'" [second scare quotes added] quote in the middle, plus the app to organize bookings hints at the direction they're going to take this. You're not buying a very expensive timeshare, you're buying a 1/8th share in a revenue-generating asset. These aren't paying guests, they're friends of the owners who have been gifted a stay. Turns out, though, that a neighborhood of (by definition) multi-millionaires can mount a more effective defense than the markets airbnb started in.

vineyardmike 5y ago
> app to organize bookings hints at the direction they're going to take this Can you elaborate why the app hints at this?