So most of us know about Airbnb and VRBO by now, where people rent out rooms, or entire apartments/houses so people have another option than hotels/motels.
Pretty interesting and strange story (that included their own cereal boxes – REALLY) about how they became as big as they are today.
But the thing about it is – they are usually renting to total strangers. For the most part it has worked out – but it seems inevitable that they will partner with someone like AuthenticID to offer some level of authentication service to help the renter know they can trust the person who will be sleeping in their bed and eating from their dishes. This chart helps illustrate some off the cool identity authentication services AuthenticID offers for everything from fraud prevention to increased customer enrollment/conversion rtes (because it’s so fast).
The chart is aimed more for the world of blockchain – but you get the idea.
So that’s going to happen.
What hasn’t happened yet – that seems a little like a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup moment of combining two things that didn’t seem obvious to combine – is real estate.
Any time we buy a car – we test drive it – and while when people buy a home they probably use Zillow or Redfin to find it these days, and you can walk around in it to see if you like it. But if you are going to pay five or ten times what you make in a year for a house, shouldn’t you spend a night there before you buy it? There could be street noise or raccoons or maybe the kids get scared or who knows what. Now Airbnb could partner with a big real estate company like Windermere or Zillow, but it seems like there’s an opportunity in here – once we get beyond the authentication of the identity of the person.
Don’t you think?
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