10. Airsorted

Founders: James Jenkins-Yates, Tom Jones and Daniel Scott
Founded: February 2015
Website: www.airsorted.uk 

When James Jenkins-Yates put his home on Airbnb, he realised that while there’s lots of money to be made from short-lets, there’s also lots of work involved for the host.

At the time, no one was providing services to help streamline the process – such as cleaning, laundry, guest communications and pricing – and so Jenkins-Yates decided to create the solution himself.

It was Boxing Day 2014 and inspired to give it a go, Jenkins-Yates built a website landing page offering hassle-free Airbnb management and spent £50 on a Facebook advert. This process took him less than 30 minutes to do.

He then brought on board Daniel Scott (who had experience in the industry with One Fine Stay and was looking for new opportunities), and Tom Jones (who he’d met in New York working for investment banks), and Airsorted was born.

Since that time a number of start-ups have arrived with a similar mission to make Airbnb hosting hassle-free – check out number 13 on our list – but where AirSorted differentiates itself is with its tech offering.

Its automated systems help to streamline operations and build client dashboards that can be used to monitor performance and drive profitability. AirSorted says this has enabled it to charge lower commissions than rivals and provide better value.

The start-up has managed more than 3,800 homes to date and is already live in London, Edinburgh, Dublin, Sydney, Brighton, Bristol, Brisbane, Auckland, Melbourne and Paris.

It’s planning on expanding to nine new cities this year, with a target of being open in 38 cities by 2019.

It’s now also diversified beyond short-lets, running flexible letting cycles of anything from two nights to 12-month tenancies.

The company tell us that its “ambition is to become the globally dominant home-stay management company” and it has a “desire to build things that will make life easier and more rewarding for our clients”.

Who knows where that will take Airsorted next…