Similar to how Airbnb lets travelers rent rooms in other people’s homes, a new app is trying to help small-business owners easily rent space for their operations.
PeerSpace, which recently launched in the Apple iTunes App store, allows various types of businesses and entrepreneurs to find or rent out their extra space. A company with an extra office, for instance, might make extra money by renting it out to a budding entrepreneur. A yoga instructor might use the app to find space at a studio looking for more bookings.
“What’s key to our marketplace is that we provide the means for small businesses to think differently about how their space is utilized and find alternative uses for that others will enjoy,” PeerSpace CEO Rony Chammas says in a Q&A on the site.
PeerSpace is initially focusing on six types of “productive spaces,” according to Forbes: culinary, office, fitness, studio, performance, event and class spaces. “Hosts”—people or businesses that have extra space to rent out—can create profiles with photos of their space along with their rental rates and capacity limits. “Guests” looking to rent out the space can then browse potential spaces in their city. Both parties can also leave reviews of each other to help make the process easier for future users of the app.
It’s free to list a space on PeerSpace. The app makes money by charging hosts a 15 percent commission when a reservation is made—slightly higher than the 6 to 12 percent commission charged by Airbnb.
PeerSpace isn’t the first app to try to help entrepreneurs find and rent out extra office or meeting space. (ShareDesk and LiquidSpace are two others to check out.) But it’s a sign that the so-called sharing economy is moving toward the business world and offering business owners more ways to reduce their costs and connect with each other.
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