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Houst

Short-term rental hosting services

Houst logo
101-200 employees
  • Property
  • Hospitality
  • B2B
  • Renting
  • Outsourcing
Haggerston, London, UK

Company mission

To empower clients to rent their properties and create more opportunities for Airbnb users to explore new areas and adventures.

Top investors

50% female employees

Our take

The property sharing market has exploded in the last few years, driven primarily by Airbnb. Host management services are trying to make it easier for consumers that want to let out their properties, by taking the hassle of it away charging a cut of the rental fees.

Formerly known as Airsorted, Houst was one of the first companies in this space, which enabled it to expand quickly and capture a large portion of the market. Hostmaker, a rival to Houst, went bust and Houst acquired a portion of Hostmaker’s non-UK operations, mainly in France, Portugal, Spain, and Italy, as well as the UK accounts.

These are operationally complicated businesses, so scaling will be challenging. After a difficult few years, re-establishing itself and moving forward will be the main focus of the company. Houst is currently active in 23 cities with more than 8,000 listings.

Kirsty headshot

Kirsty

Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle

Benefits

  • Wellbeing. A hub with fitness, nutrition, mediation, talking therapy. Betterhelp coverage for mental health support.
  • Employee Discounts. Money off at a whole range of restaurants, cafes, gyms and cinemas with the Perkbox app
  • Snacks. The lauded snack cupboard. And no, it’s not all bananas and apples (although we have them too!)
  • Culture. From team social events to 5-a-side, we’ve put time into getting our work culture just right
  • Parental Leave. Family comes first. We offer enhanced leave to spend time with your new child, regardless of your gender
  • Pawternity. We encourage proud parents of new pets to work from home to help their new member settle in

Funding (last 2 of 7 rounds)

Jun 2020

$3.3m

CONVERTIBLE

Jun 2019

$2m

CONVERTIBLE

Total funding: $23.1m

This company has top investors

Leadership

Airbnb Host and Entrepreneur. They are a Chairman & Investor of UnderstockMe and Chairman of the Board of Property Services Company. They are also a Certified Mortgage Advisor.

People progressing

Helen started at Houst right after graduating 6 years ago and began in our Client Success department. Helen has undergone multiple promotions and is now Senior Operations Manager.

Jakub began as a Software Developer in 2018, in 2019 he was promoted to Senior Software Developer, then becoming Product Lead in 2021. Now, Jakub is Houst's Engineering Manager, doing a great job.

Endorsements

All

Nice people (2)

Autonomy (1)

Open and honest communication (1)

Supportive management (1)

Innovative product (1)

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