Flatbook: We pay your rent, guaranteed. | Product Hunt

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sh0 (Eyal Toledano)

Hey ProductHunters! We're really excited to be introducing Flatbook to ProductHunt today. In 2013, our team set out to solve the subletting problem. After enabling hundreds of people to save over $500,000 in rent last year alone, we realized that the true vision of our company is actually to remove the need to sublet altogether. Flatbook pays your rent while you're away, guaranteed. How are we able to do that? We've written a short Medium post to go over Flatbook in greater detail and you can take a look at it here. One last thing: We're happy to provide ProductHunters with an exclusive cash bonus offer granting you an additional $100 on top of your rent paid this summer. All you need to do to lock that in is make sure to apply before April 15th. Applications for Flatbook's North American Subletting program close on May 1st. Applications for Flatbook's European Subletting program close on June 1st.

Jacob Sempler

Christian H. Cooper

@sempler they re-style the apartment, photograph it better, rent out the place at a greater per night rate than your monthly rent and keep the difference. Ugh. Why didn't I think of this? Pretty cool.

sh0 (Eyal Toledano)

@sempler Airbnb is one of many booking platforms. Flatbook leverages Airbnb as well as other platforms to offer the inventory it builds over the year (through sublet applications for instance) at nightly rates. We're different from Airbnb in that fundamentally our businesses are not the same. Our goal is to distribute the authenticity of the best vacation rentals with the standards of the best hotel brands by taking control of that experience, leveraging the best local flavors of its properties and utilizing a sophisticated operations workflow to give you that Hotel consistency while retaining the look and feel of an Airbnb. Our Subletting Program (http://flatbook.co/sublet) solves the pain of having to sublet. Our Leasing Program (http://flatbook.co/leases) removes the need to sublet altogether. Hopefully that answers your question! :)

Joelle Alcaidinho

@eyaltoledano Are you in Atlanta, Georgia? Also, how do you handle making sure the guests abide by any rules of the building (i.e. no smoking, quiet hours, etc)... the kind of rules that can cause big issues for the lease holder/owner if they are not followed by their guests?

Jacob Sempler

Brandon Waselnuk

I've hung out in a restyled apartment from Flatbook while in MTL - fantastic experience. Looking forward to seeing you expand into Ottawa so I can make all my incoming friends / colleagues stay with you.

sh0 (Eyal Toledano)

@brandonwaselnuk Hey Brandon! Thanks for the shoutout :) We actually are live in Ottawa. More than 70 people have already applied to have Flatbook sublet their apartment. Feel free to drop us a line!

Brandon Waselnuk

Roger Huang

Joel Mackey

Is this just for apartments or can it also be used for houses? My brother is building an ever growing list of houses he rents out, typically by room. It's usually college students / professionals that are kind of "nerdy" but want to live around people. Could this service be used to modernize the interior of his houses by room and offload his need for finding tenants?

sh0 (Eyal Toledano)

@webaddict Very good question. Though our Subletting Program typically sees mostly apartment applications, we have accepted houses in the past. Your brother definitely could make use of it and he wouldn't have to deal with per-room leases. We'd take over entire apartments, pay up to 100% of his mortgage and utilities and manage it on our end. I should mention that we are working on a special project for landlords.

Joel Mackey

@eyaltoledano I will let him and my Uncle know about your service. My Uncle is a landlord of over 500 units and is looking for a way to take some of the load out of the process. Excited about this! :P

sh0 (Eyal Toledano)

@webaddict There's excellent alignment with your uncle. Happy to hop on a call with him at some point. Feel free to connect us and thanks a lot for thinking about us!

Joel Mackey

@eyaltoledano Wow, this is the kind of go-getter attitude that makes or breaks a company. I'll talk with them both and see if we can setup a meeting!

sh0 (Eyal Toledano)

assaf dagan

Well done- is this the next gen. airbnb? it`s pretty awesome - hope you pull this one off - how does this sit with owners? Does this service have the same trouble as airbnb with local renting regulations?

sh0 (Eyal Toledano)

@assafdagan We see Airbnb as more of a partner than a competitor. One of the biggest impediments in the sharing economy is the inconsistency between AirBnb apartment experiences. Our goal is to eventually coalesce it together to offer the consistency of service expected from the world's top accommodation brands while retaining the authenticity of the sharing economy. Last year we saw over 5,000 bookings on our inventory. Flatbook is the largest manager of Airbnb properties in many of the cities we're in. Since our service sits on top of booking destinations like Airbnb, HomeAway etc, regulations sit at a level beyond our current involvement. In most cases, regulations only apply if your landlord isn't cool with you subletting. We always advise our customers to make sure of that fact regardless.

Ryan Hoover

This fascinating. I know a lot of people that travel or thirst to live a "nomad" life that would love to use this.

Roger Huang

@rrhoover Thanks for the love Ryan :) We do love helping digital nomads pursue their dreams. It's all a part of the mission!

Raul Riera

Airbnb for Airbnb 😄 Joking aside, I think the idea is fantastic!

Some Guy

Seems like a great concept :) I'm gonna be that guy with the typo correction, but I noticed this on your site: "If you plan on leaving you place for the summer", should be "your* place".

sh0 (Eyal Toledano)