Day 27 of #productidea — Rent the pool or tennis court from your neighbors
This is part of my #productidea 30 day challenge on which each day I write about a new product idea.
This is another idea I had many years ago. A friend of mine started it but the feedback wasn’t very positive.
Looking outside from the terrace of my apartment I can see three pools and one tennis court. None of them are from my apartment building. In summer I looked at them with envy when I see kids cooling in the water and with anger when nobody is using them.
In order to enjoy them I have three options: move to any of those apartment building, make friends there or take advantage of the sharing economy. What if the owners of those buildings sell tickets for the pool or rent the tennis court when it’s empty?
If you are an owner, your first thought may be that you don’t want other people in your apartment complex, you don’t know who they are, they may be less careful, they may do more noise, etc. You may think that the income would be very little so the potential problems aren’t worth the effort. And even if you, as a particular, think it’s a good idea, you still need to convince your neighbors. Those were the problems that my friend found when he was doing user research.
Now that Airbnb (houses), Turo (cars) and other have become successful on sharing your properties with others, the mentality may be more open to try again this idea. I believe the trust issue can be solved quite easily as others have proven. The key question is if this idea could generate enough money so residents pay 0-50% of their current community fees. In that case, there may be a financial incentive for residents to be more open to share their complex amenities.
