About Houfy

What does Houfy mean?

HOUFY derived its name from “HOUse For You”

How do you pronounce Houfy?

Most members pronounce Houfy as: HowFee and some: Whofee (French)

Our mission is to save hosts and their guests money.

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 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 advertising platform.

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.

Our platform is inspired by the success of Airbnb, and we aim to offer 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 We believe that traditional vacation rental websites are outdated and only Airbnb has managed to appeal to the next generation of vacation rental seekers.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 give guests a choice to pay hosts 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 share their vacation rentals and connect with their clients and guests 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 our community and help Houfy make a difference.

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.

Other "Office" Locations:

• Pune, India (Swapnil)
• India (Companies - contracts for building apps/other)
• Luxembourg (Thijs)

Imagine if you had a front row seat to Airbnb and Vrbo's tech support/customer service depts. You'd probably run away!

Say Yes to Houfy Facebook Group

We also LOVE to discuss ways to educate travelers about the benefits of book direct. And of course Houfy!

Let travelers know their credit card already has many consumer protections, and don't let them waste hundreds on some bogus guarantee.

The majority of hosts who get bookings on Houfy have their system on auto pilot. All they do is update their social media/website and replace Airbnb links with their Houfy links. Then they announce to their followers they no longer need to pay hundreds to those sites and can just book and save hundreds on Houfy.

Frequently asked questions:

Why should I use Houfy? In a word, cost. Houfy allows you to accept reservations at a much lower cost than the likes of AirBnB, VRBO and Booking .com

Do I need a website ? That’s certainly an option. You could add our widgets to it to manage the reservation and calendar elements.

However you have additional costs to consider, site build and management, hosting fees etc. And if you want it to rank (get found in Google searches) you will have to pay for that.

The beauty of Houfy is that it allows you to have a many of the elements of a website without the additional cost.

Do I just need Houfy? Probably not. The main platforms are well known and people go to them first. But they are expensive to use by comparison. Direct bookings will earn you more money. Houfy doesn’t take commission so if your guests book through Houfy you get more of the money.

How will people find Houfy? By you promoting it. If you market yourself on social media or local advertising. Send them to your Houfy listing to make a reservation.

As more hosts do this Houfy will become more well known.

Houfy does not replace the need for you to promote and market your business.

It's really that simple.

Thanks Thijs & Swapnil