Trustr announces the launch of the first platform of its kind that enables vacation property owners and renters that know each other to book, and share recommendations for listings that they own, or have vetted and stayed at themselves.
NEW YORK, June 5, 2024 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Today, at the Skift Short Term Rental Summit, Trustr announced the launch of the first platform of its kind that enables vacation property owners and renters that know each other to book, and share recommendations for listings that they own, or have vetted and stayed at themselves.
Trustr is co-founded by serial entrepreneurs and seasoned executives Bill Cummings, CEO and Brent Hieggelke, CMO. Prior to starting Trustr, Hieggelke co-founded and was CEO of a vacation rental start-up, Second Porch, which built the first sharing economy vacation rental site and was acquired by HomeAway, now Expedia. Cummings has built a successful career focused on developing innovative and compelling solutions to challenging and painful problems in many industries including luxury goods, building materials, supercomputing, and healthcare supply chain.
How Trustr works for property owners:
- Private sharing: By making their homes available to private guest lists or broader circles of people they know and trust, property owners can maintain complete control over who knows about their property, who can access their detailed listing, and who can stay there. Trustr makes it much easier to share or rent their homes, with significantly greater peace of mind.
How Trustr works for renters:
- Peer-to-peer recommendations: Find better vacation rentals faster by discovering and capitalizing on recommendations for vetted places to stay from people you know, and whose taste you trust. With Trustr, you can easily book great properties that your friends, family and colleagues have seen first-hand and recommend, rather than having to rely on anonymous, inflated or - worse - fake reviews.
"Reviews are so much more useful when you know something about who wrote them, what their taste is, and how they like to travel," says Trustr co-founder and CEO Bill Cummings. "And as our world becomes increasingly automated and AI-driven, the appetite for, and peace of mind provided by recommendations from real people that you trust is only going to increase."
Trustr is the first travel platform that combines the dependability of word-of-mouth with the scale of established social circles making it easier to find or share great places to stay. It is booking platform-agnostic, and the only two-sided marketplace where both renters and property owners can benefit from trusted connections.
"Most second homes are purchased primarily to enjoy with family and friends, so they are very personal, and are usually not regarded as investment or rental properties," said Brent Hieggelke, Trustr co-founder and CMO. "Yet since most of them also sit empty 10-11 months a year, many second home owners would be open to sharing or renting them, but only to people that they know and trust. Trustr is the first platform built for these owners — allowing them to create a listing visible only to their curated guest list, which provides the peace of mind they need to share and rent their property."
Cummings and Hieggelke came up with the idea for Trustr after booking disappointing places, then later discovering friends had great recommendations for better places to stay. At the same time, they also heard about the large number of second home owners who were underutilizing their properties because they didn't want to rent to strangers. As longtime entrepreneurs, they decided to tackle both of these issues by focusing on the trust inherent in existing social networks.
About Trustr:
Trustr is a new, first-of-its-kind vacation rental marketplace with listings and recommendations from people you know and trust. With Trustr, members can share recommendations for great places to stay with their friends, and also curate guest lists for sharing or renting their homes on a private basis. For more information, visit trustr.com.
Media Inquiries:
Laurel Case
Media Contact
Laurel Case, Trustr, , [email protected] , www.trustr.com
SOURCE Trustr
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