Aziza Chaouachi founded Leavy.co to fill the gaps in the short-term apartment renting scene left by Airbnb.
Inspired by her own experience renting her apartment out while travelling, Chaouachi has developed Leavy.co to be traveler-friendly. She also based the model off of community to help people connect at the same time.
Leavy.co allows those who travel to make some money on the side and rent out their living space while they are away, with guaranteed income from the app.
Guaranteed payment to hosts and additional perks
Leavy.co allows travellers to rent out their living spaces while they are away. Then, other members get paid to host the booking while they are away.
Members get paid upfront, regardless of whether the space is occupied by a customer. This sets the app apart from many of its competitors. In-app Leavy Coins allow members to earn points for inviting friends to join the app and then spend them on travel-related items.
The idea relies heavily on the idea of community. Community enables them to raise the funds necessary to keep the app running, and to have a steady flow of new customers.
Leavy.co’s community now boasts 65,000 people, 60% of whom are women and offices in Paris, Amsterdam, London, Madrid, Rome, and Lisbon. After raising $14 million in 2019 and $5 million more in 2020, Leavy.co has set its eyes on expanding to the US.
Aziza Chaouachi: Leavy.co’s founder, first member and user
Chaouachi was still a college student when she founded Leavy.co back in 2017. She graduated from the University of Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne with Master’s degrees in common and private law.
During this time, she traveled a lot. But the high costs of traveling, especially Airbnb, caused problems for her student budget.
After realizing that she was unable to rent out her apartment through Airbnb, Chaouachi turned to her friends to help out. “Friends took care of it in the end and that’s how the community started,” she says, “I was the original Leavy.co member.”
Leavy.co takes the risk for its users
“Unlike other OTAs (Online Travel Agencies) such as traditional search engines like Booking.com, or short-term rental platforms like Airbnb, we don’t offer yet another item the Instagram-generation will never be able to buy: we actually boost their buying power instead,” explains Chaouachi.
Although the money that hosts receive is typically “slightly less” than Airbnb, it is guaranteed. For those who rent these spaces, the prices are typically also lower than their rivals.
“We are the first pure-scale marketplace that takes a risk for its users,” Chaouachi adds. “As network orchestrators, we generate profit with dynamic pricing. Our tech is obsessed with finding the optimal point of satisfaction for every user.” As the community grows, so will the resources that Leavy.co has to work with.
Download the Leavy.co app on Google’s Play Store.
