{"id":40068,"date":"2023-10-20T15:06:08","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/startupsmart.test\/2023\/10\/20\/sydney-startup-pitches-tent-in-your-backyard-startupsmart\/"},"modified":"2023-10-20T15:06:08","modified_gmt":"2023-10-20T15:06:08","slug":"sydney-startup-pitches-tent-in-your-backyard-startupsmart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/uncategorized\/sydney-startup-pitches-tent-in-your-backyard-startupsmart\/","title":{"rendered":"Sydney startup pitches tent in your backyard – StartupSmart"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A Sydney startup is looking to make it easier for travellers to pitch up a tent in a property owner\u2019s backyard or park their caravan in their driveway in exchange for cash.<\/p>\n

Homecamp<\/a>, which launched in January this year, has just over 700 users and is available in seven countries.<\/p>\n

Hosts are able to upload photos of their backyard and any additional facilities and set their own pricing. On average the platform\u2019s users pay $30 for each night of their stay.<\/p>\n

Payment made between the host and customer in person \u2013 however, online transactions and insurance will be available in the coming months.<\/p>\n

Founder David Abitbol, who comes from France, told StartupSmart <\/i>the early-stage platform is very similar to Airbnb but specifically for campers and travellers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were backpackers and travelling Australia and we were struggling to find a place to park our van on the coastline,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t really find somewhere to park your van because it\u2019s forbidden to park your van in the street and you expose yourself to the rangers and fines.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abitbol says he came up with the idea after noticing how Australians tend to have large properties and backyards.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought maybe it\u2019s a good idea to start a website to connect those people with extra space with backpackers looking for a place to stay. It\u2019s a win-win.\u201d<\/p>\n

The startup is based out of Fishburners, which Abitbol says is useful because it means he has space for networking as well as interns.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is quite helpful because they provide free workshops and there are lots of people doing a similar thing,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

Homecamp recently received $50,000 of seed funding from a few French investors in order to \u201cpay the bills\u201d.<\/p>\n

Abitbol says he isn\u2019t worried about running into regulatory problems, despite accommodation giant Airbnb drawing the ire of real estate agents<\/a> and policymakers in Victoria.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom my perspective it is the market that should decide,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf people use it and like it and it\u2019s good value for campers and good value for home owners, then they [regulators] have to change and be flexible. They have to let people innovate\u2026 because otherwise it will end up blocking entrepreneurs and I don\u2019t think that\u2019s good for home owners but also Australia and the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf Airbnb and Uber are doing it, it means that we can do it as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Abitbol also brushed off concerns that Homecamp would not be able to compete with Airbnb, which has raised more than $800 million to date.<\/p>\n

\u201cAirbnb are the luxury brand with villas and going to the camping industry or market would not be matching with their brand,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a niche market for them, they\u2019re looking for $80, $100 in rent because otherwise they\u2019re not making money. Camping is often seen as cheap and old fashioned, which is why I don\u2019t think it\u2019s a market for Airbnb.\u201d<\/p>\n

In New South Wales, property owners have been\u00a0threatened with fines of more than $1 million<\/a> for renting out rooms on Airbnb and other short-term accommodation platforms because regulators deemed they were running unauthorised bed and breakfasts.<\/p>\n

According to the Tenants Union of Victoria, tenants are not allowed to sublet their property without written consent from their landlord.<\/p>\n

Follow StartupSmart on <\/i>Facebook<\/i><\/a>, <\/i>Twitter<\/i><\/a>, and <\/i>LinkedIn<\/i><\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Sydney startup is looking to make it easier for travellers to pitch up a tent in a property owner\u2019s<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61199,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40068"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40068"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40068\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.startupsmart.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}