What, Who and Why Houfy?
Houfy is the leading platform for book-direct vacation rentals, with over 55,000 properties worldwide. From cozy homes to spacious apartments, you'll find the perfect vacation rental on Houfy. Plus, our platform allows you to book directly with hosts, saving you money on fees. Explore our extensive selection of vacation rentals and find your dream home away from home. Book with confidence on Houfy and enjoy a stress-free vacation.
What does Houfy mean?
HOUFY derived its name from “HOUse For You”
Our mission is to connect people with places.
What makes HOUFY different?
- Houfy is a market network that combines the best elements of social networks and marketplace features on one platform.
- HOUFY grows with its members, creating a movement of like-minded individuals who share their listings and destination information to help the platform evolve and grow organically.
- Houfy is currently free of service fees for both hosts and guests
- Houfy connects owners (hosts) directly with guests, allowing for more open communication and an improved experience for all parties.
- Houfy provides technologies and services to promote places and grow businesses for its members, including Houfy maps, user-generated content tools, dynamic SEO, payment processing, and website integration widgets.
- Houfy is a fun and social community where members can share their experiences and travel tips with others, and create travel communities around similar interests and needs.
- Houfy is easy to use, allowing hosts to set up their listings from Airbnb or VRBO with just one click and sync their calendars across multiple sites.
- Houfy is secure, using identity verification tools to promote a safe and trusted marketplace.
- HOUFY is built and running on industry-leading technology.
What is a market network?
Houfy is a market network connecting people with properties directly.
A market network is a new business model of an “enabling economy”. The key attributes are:
- Combine the main elements of both social networks and marketplaces
- Use software to focus action around longer-term projects and relationships, not just a quick transaction
- Promote the service provider as a differentiated individual, helping to build long-term business benefits
- A market network elevates the person, their reputation, and their value.
Market networks have stronger retention and engagement. They represent a different way to do business compared to sites like Airbnb or Uber that simply aggregate demand. In that model, neither the seller nor the customer matter. An Uber driver doesn’t know the customer and the customer doesn’t know the driver. They may never connect again.
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Thijs H. Aaftink (Creator and Owner), originally from the Netherlands, born in the US, known as T or Tice; started the Houfy project in 2014 with the idea to share local information close to home connected to marketplaces for the real estate and travel industry.
Swapnil Chavan (Lead Programmer), from Pune India. Studied computer science and has been working for Houfy since 2015. Swapnil lives with his wife and child in Pune.
Who owns Houfy?
All shares are owned by Thijs H. Aaftink
Will Houfy sell ownership to raise funds?
Currently there is no reason to raise funds. Our costs are limited and manageable for the foreseeable future.
Will Houfy be partially member owned?
We are looking at options for member ownership. This will take time incl. changes with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We will update as soon as we know more.
See minute 4 of this video..
To learn more: please join Say Yes to Houfy Facebook Group
At Houfy, our goal is to create a worldwide platform for vacation rentals, where people can connect directly with each other without paying booking or service fees.
Our platform is inspired by the success of Airbnb, and we aim to create a simple and modern user experience that appeals to the 21st century. We believe that traditional vacation rental websites are outdated and only Airbnb has managed to appeal to the next generation of vacation rental seekers.
We've chosen to focus on the travel industry because of the high fees charged by online travel agencies (OTA) such as Booking.com, Airbnb, VRBO, and TripAdvisor. When you search for a place to stay in Breckenridge, Colorado, you're likely to end up on one of these sites, and you'll pay 12-20% in fees for the privilege of booking "instantaneously". We think that's too much, and we want to enable people to pay directly without paying such high commissions.
We've also created a social site to make it easy for members to share local information and travel tips, and to invite their friends and clients to join. Each post on our social site is indexed by Google, which helps us to be found by prospective users who are searching for local information. Our community is a place where people can learn from each other and share their experiences.
In summary, Houfy's "just cause" is to create a platform that helps property owners, managers, and agents to share their vacation rentals and connect with their clients without paying any service fees. We believe that online middlemen fees are too high, and we're building a movement of like-minded individuals who want to change the way the vacation rental market works. As of the end of 2022, we've grown to be the largest book direct vacation rental platform in the world, with over 55,000 listings globally. Join us and help us to make a difference.