An Airbnb for Dogs Gets $3.4 Million in Funding • Hacker News Board

Re: An Airbnb for Dogs Gets $3.4 Million in Funding

#21

Post by danielpal » Mon, Apr 09, 2012, 9:03 PM UTC

tptacek wrote: post #4

To preempt an impending flood of "bubble!" babble: It may surprise you how sensible this business idea is. As someone who has had to alter vacation plans due to (reluctant) dog ownership: dog boarding is very expensive, and commercial dog boarding facilities are not great, requiring careful reviewing and inspection before selecting; even then, your preferred venues are likely to book up exactly when you want to be ou…

Couldn't agree more. It seems the title was poised precisely to make it seem as this is a stupid idea, while is really far from it. I also own a dog and I can't wait to use this service. Last year alone I spend over $2,780 in dog hotels.

Re: An Airbnb for Dogs Gets $3.4 Million in Funding

#22

Post by michaelkscott » Mon, Apr 09, 2012, 9:04 PM UTC

tptacek wrote: post #4

To preempt an impending flood of "bubble!" babble: It may surprise you how sensible this business idea is. As someone who has had to alter vacation plans due to (reluctant) dog ownership: dog boarding is very expensive, and commercial dog boarding facilities are not great, requiring careful reviewing and inspection before selecting; even then, your preferred venues are likely to book up exactly when you want to be ou…

Yeah, the headline is very cheezy and makes it seem like that. An X for Y Gets Z million. But in reading the article you can see that it's a pretty solid business and there are probably millions of people willing to pay for a service like this.

Maybe it has the potential to become a billion dollar company.

Re: An Airbnb for Dogs Gets $3.4 Million in Funding

#23

Post by parsnips » Mon, Apr 09, 2012, 9:17 PM UTC

akoumjian wrote: post #6

I've met a couple of the developers and they seem knowledgeable and excited.

I can echo this enthusiastically.

Re: An Airbnb for Dogs Gets $3.4 Million in Funding

#24

Post by Sujan » Mon, Apr 09, 2012, 9:20 PM UTC

Non-native speaker here: It took me quite too long to figure out that the boarding you are all talking about has nothing to with planes *doh

Re: An Airbnb for Dogs Gets $3.4 Million in Funding

#25

Post by briggsly » Mon, Apr 09, 2012, 9:25 PM UTC

justinsb wrote: post #9

This is brilliant; both sides of the market exist and are eager to find the other one. Rover's biggest problem could be that people will happily watch dogs for free / even pay to do so. This is an unusual problem for a market maker (are there any other examples?)

Que? I would love to find some sweet old lady to watch my dogs for free rather than pay $25-50/night to board my dog in a box not much bigger than my CPU. I would pay a nice commission to the site to connect me with such a benevolent, non-crazy old lady such as this (if it does in fact exist).

Re: An Airbnb for Dogs Gets $3.4 Million in Funding

#26

Post by kurtvarner » Mon, Apr 09, 2012, 9:26 PM UTC

Spotwag is in the same space. They're differentiated by leveraging your Facebook friends and friends of friends in order to find care takers. Pets are like children. Do you really want to trust them with anyone?

http://spotwag.com/

Re: An Airbnb for Dogs Gets $3.4 Million in Funding

#27

Post by mikeryan » Mon, Apr 09, 2012, 9:30 PM UTC

tptacek wrote: post #4

To preempt an impending flood of "bubble!" babble: It may surprise you how sensible this business idea is. As someone who has had to alter vacation plans due to (reluctant) dog ownership: dog boarding is very expensive, and commercial dog boarding facilities are not great, requiring careful reviewing and inspection before selecting; even then, your preferred venues are likely to book up exactly when you want to be ou…

As an owner of 2 (very active) dogs I agree. This is one of those times where I smack myself wondering how I didn't see this opportunity.

This is a money maker.

Re: An Airbnb for Dogs Gets $3.4 Million in Funding

#28

Post by slantyyz » Mon, Apr 09, 2012, 9:31 PM UTC

tptacek wrote: post #4

To preempt an impending flood of "bubble!" babble: It may surprise you how sensible this business idea is. As someone who has had to alter vacation plans due to (reluctant) dog ownership: dog boarding is very expensive, and commercial dog boarding facilities are not great, requiring careful reviewing and inspection before selecting; even then, your preferred venues are likely to book up exactly when you want to be ou…

Dog boarding is indeed expensive, but I can't imagine using such a service for my dogs.

It's one thing to get an apartment trashed with a service like AirBnB - that stuff is usually replaceable, but the last thing I need is for one of my dogs to get sick/injured/lost/worse from some stranger I found on a dog sitting site.

My wife and I are crazy dog owners who treat our dogs like family, but I think we'd rather overpay someone we trust than use a service just to save money.

Re: An Airbnb for Dogs Gets $3.4 Million in Funding

#29

Post by kimsterv_again » Mon, Apr 09, 2012, 9:31 PM UTC

justinsb wrote: post #9

This is brilliant; both sides of the market exist and are eager to find the other one. Rover's biggest problem could be that people will happily watch dogs for free / even pay to do so. This is an unusual problem for a market maker (are there any other examples?)

I'm building Spotwag.com. Lots of people watch dogs for free, even better when you know who said people are.

Re: An Airbnb for Dogs Gets $3.4 Million in Funding

#30

Post by jaredsohn » Mon, Apr 09, 2012, 9:33 PM UTC

One thing that differentiates this from AirBnB (besides being for dogs) is that they are booking locally. This means that once owners find a place that they like, they are likely to try to book the same place multiple times, assuming availability.

Also, it makes it more likely that people might try to make future transactions directly without using the site, unless booking through them provides value beyond discovery.