sharingXchange
sharingXchange is a social and sharing focused startup founded in Austin, Texas. It is inspired by what the sharing economy can do for our communities — both locally and globally — from our environment to improving people’s lives. Their objective is to expand globally and encourage people to compare travel options using the sharing economy and monetize their properties.
The startup is young and vibrant; the team behind the idea consists of sharing economy nomads who believe the current economic model is not sufficient or practical, which is why they are absolutely devoted in making sharingXchange the new star on the block. They aim to make it easy for entrepreneurs to share their stuff, help people connect, make new friends, and engage them to search, compare and share. Sharing provides unique, social, ecological and affordable experiences.
So what makes sharingXchange different from the other services out there? Well, they offer both, a sharing economy meta-search comparison site and a property management listing service. In other words, you can search and compare all types of properties on all major rental websites, all over the world, all at the same time. One unique thing you’ll notice is that properties such as tree-houses, houseboats, yurts, castles, etc. will be shown at the top of the search results giving bookers a chance to stay somewhere different to the norm.
A beautiful couple, John and Kathy, got married last spring in Austin.Searching for somewhere wonderful and different to spend their honeymoon, quite by accident John found sharingXchange on Facebook, and decided to try it out. “We made a decision real fast”, says Kathy. “I knew our honeymoon had to be unique in some way, and we wanted to go to a warm European country by the sea, so we found this sailing boat for rent in Greece”, continues John. “It was easy to book and it wasn’t that time consuming. We didn’t have any problems connecting with the owner.” Arriving in Greece in June, it seems they really enjoyed the beach, the sea, and the sun. “It was truly an amazing boat with excellent facilities”, says Kathy. They had a chance to sail on a boat enjoying dreamy sunsets as well as taking a walking tour around Kavala, Greece. “I’ve never seen anything like it in my life. There’s so much history in those streets and that architecture”, says Kathy. “It was an experience of a lifetime”, smiles John.
As well as booking your dream holiday, you can also list your property for renting on their website too. Let’s say you have a property that is not used at the moment, sharingXchange can help you by listing your living spaces on all relevant sites, increase and decrease prices based on demand, collect payments from the various sites, provide a monthly report and, once they have taken their commission, ensure the rest of the money is sent to you.
Ivan, from Bulgaria, loves to travel and had his first experience with sharingXchange last spring and he now recommends it to his friends. “It was easy to search the properties; the unique ones are shown as the top results. The website compares properties from many other online rental services.
The booking and payments were easy to complete. I’ve been using this service for months now. I’ve rented apartments in Athens, Greece and Rome, Italy.
All were wonderful experiences for me.” Even more interesting is the fact that Ivan himself decided to list his apartment in Sofia, Bulgaria because he doesn’t live there now. “I thought it’d be cool to get some profit from listing my apartment on the sharingXchange website because I’m out of the country all the time. To be honest, I didn’t have much to do. I briefly described the details of my property and requested a photographer from sharingXchange. The pictures turned out really nice! Everything else, like listing my property on other websites, collecting taxes and payments, was done by the specialists at sharingXchange”, says Ivan.
sharingXchange has a lot of listed properties around the world.
Most of them are in the USA and Europe. There are so-called top destinations because of their popularity among the customers. Some of them are Austin, Meteora, and Rome. You also have a great chance to book a yacht in Athens for a weekend getaway, or throw a party with your friends in a treehouse.
For people that would like to relax in a big city, Sofia (Bulgaria) would be a perfect choice because it is quite big but at the same time a calm city. Additionally to that, you have a wonderful chance to meet local property owners and get to know more about traditional customs and culture.
Those are not the only benefits of sharingXchange for its user.
The startup launched the Ambassador program and anybody around the world can be a part of it. The Ambassadors are digital nomads that help grow the property management listing service for accommodation and provide listings of homes, rooms, and unique living spaces. In exchange they get a commission based remuneration. To become an Ambassador you’d need to attend an intro meeting, and then be involved in the regular meetings to learn and share how to be a successful digital nomad with sharingXchange.
John Hazlewood, the founder of sharingXchange, embodies an image of a true digital nomad. He is a successful entrepreneur who has worked in the field of sharing economy for decades and has proved that sharing is useful and highly-productive for everyone.
The startup has big plans for the future: expanding its market, finding more properties, attracting more customers.
The team constantly works on improving and updating what they offer to make the experience even more pleasant.
One of the big changes, or rather additions, to their website will be a blog for travelers with information about the top destinations, things to do and to see, and the ways to get there. The team also plans to publish articles related to their services to make it easy for the customers to use sharingXchange.
