Drayton Gardens
The world of travel is seeing a transformation brutal. Not everything has been the product of the pandemic, but of a traveler who had begun to explore his possibilities beyond what was established before. Getting out of the norm, after all, is the fun of discovering new destinations. Especially when it comes to accommodation, which has been striving for years to expand its horizons, be it as Hotels or as dwellings enabled as vacation residences.
The concept that, at first, began as a sofa in a stranger's house miles away from our homes grew so large as to change the rules of the game in cosmopolitan cities , endangering its nerve centers to give preference to mass tourism. Little by little and with sustainability and awareness of valuing neighborhoods and their neighbors, the metamorphosis of these vacation rentals begins to change their way of doing things. The last to achieve this was Smarter, in London.
“We are embarked on the mission to lead the short-term rental industry towards a more positive direction , both in terms of customer experience and in terms of environmental responsibility”, he explains. Guy van der Westhuizen , creator of the platform whose portfolio includes some of the most exclusive homes in London, managed by the most advanced real estate agencies in the city.
"The industry growth in the last decade it has not always been for the better and the offer that the traveler finds right now is usually run by hosts of dubious experience. What Smarter seeks is to be the first platform that selects homes based on their excellent quality and service , allowing customers to book with complete confidence”, he adds. Hence the name, a reflection of the need to find wiser choices and smarter homes, which currently hover between £200 and £2,000 a night.
The project has been under construction for a year, with the pandemic allowing Van de Westhuizen to polish its launch, designed to reset the functioning of the industry and its relationship with the planet. “I see many opportunities to improve and our partners are being very receptive to listening to them, so we are in a very exciting moment,” explains the man who began his career as a lawyer and who eventually went on to found his own car rental agency. short-term homes.
Detail of Waterford Road II, one of Smarter's homes
"In the last decade my agency has handled over 10,000 bookings in 500 households and I've seen the industry change all this time...although not always for the better," he tells us. "I am a avid traveler and landscape photographer. Along with my wife and our four children, we have always preferred to stay at home when we travel. In fact, we are fascinated Andalusia We go there every summer with our family and friends," shares the founder of the Stay For Good Foundation, the charity that receives 10% of Smarter's profits.
The scene in the English capital, when it comes to short-term home rentals, things are slowly getting back on track, with the world waiting for travel restrictions to be lifted. He feels: the boom is about to break loose. Still, the return to the normal as it was known is not what Smarter is looking for.
“In the first place, because of the issue of sustainability , a commitment that will evolve the way we work. For example, removing the plastics single use or through our impetus for offset carbon footprint created in each stay, including the flights of our clients”, confesses the creator of a machinery that also wants to regain confidence in the market, working only with verified homes, managed by professional companies and reducing booking fees.
The price reduction is achieved by making a clear difference between the most mainstream booking channels, or what is the same, giving up the 15% that other platforms like commission . "By having Smarter with homes of high end , this amount would be very significant when it comes to being reflected in the price. That's why we don't take less commission, saving, on average, about $400 on each reservation for our clients," explains van de Westhuizen to Condé Nast Traveler.
The houses found in Smarter are property of those who inhabit them, who seek to rent them when they are on vacation or traveling the world for long periods of time. Although there are also owners of second homes or pieds-à-terre. In any case, they are homes that are used by their owners but who seek to make them more profitable while they are away.
Some of them are as exquisite as The Lodge , a Gothic Revival home in Fulham Cemetery. "The owner paid £4.5m for it and it took four years to complete. And it has a spectacular indoor pool," explains van de Westhuizen. But there are also apartments like those decorated by pre-eminent interior designers, such as Radnor Walk – by catherine wilma – and Drayton Gardens –of Jam By Hedayat–.
Design is a fundamental factor in the homes that make up the platform
Although it is true that the concept of airbnb It remains a sensitive subject in big cities for helping to raise housing prices along with demand, Smarter tries to distance himself from it. "We support any kind of regulation when it is necessary, not only to control growth and protect us from overtourism, but also to eliminate bad managers, such as landlords who prioritize profits over neighbors. Or those who do not care in the least about the quality or the behavior of their guests", explains its founder.
"The positive thing about us is that, as our housing list is made up of second homes, it does not deprive the real-estate market either affects prices . In addition, the laws of London limit the number of days you can stay in this type of housing. We will not accept overnight bookings and since we know the owners and managers of these homes, we believe we will be able to prevent any negative behavior from those who stay with us."
Stafford Terrace