James Jenkins-Yates, Tom Jones and Daniel Scott: Airsorted

James Jenkins-Yates, 28, Tom Jones, 31 and Daniel Scott, 31
Company: Airsorted
Web: www.airsorted.uk

Truly brilliant ideas tend to foster others, and Airbnb is a case in point. The short-term letting business has triggered a number of property management start-ups dedicated to serving its client base but Airsorted has carved a niche in this vertical.

Airsorted offers a plethora of tenant management services including cleaning, laundry, key exchanges and even listing creation, removing all the hassle for its clients.

Although its key focus is Airbnb customers, it also services bookings from travel websites such as Expedia, Booking.com and HomeAway.

The idea for the company came when James Jenkins-Yates was trying to rent his home on Airbnb in 2014. Realising the amount of work involved for the host, and the lack of management services available at the time, he decided to jump in.

Jenkins-Yates built a website landing page and placed an ad on Facebook for £50. Then he recruited business acquaintances Tom Jones and Daniel Scott, who had experience in this field with Young Gun alumni onefinestay.

Together, they have overseen a remarkable growth story.

Since launch in 2015, Airsorted has generated over £50m in revenue for its hosts and established premises in 28 cities around the world, including Paris, Dubai, Auckland, Sydney and Dublin. The number of booked nights serviced by the company has increased three-fold every year and annual revenues are over £10m.

Although several rival start-ups are hot on its heels, Airsorted continues to stand apart due to its use of technology. The company has rolled out automated systems to smooth its operations, and dashboards which enable clients to track their property’s performance.

This meteoric development has certainly caught the eye of investors. Airsorted raised £1.5m in funding last year before completing a £5m Series A round in March, featuring Pi Labs and Atami Capital, and then securing a further £2.1m through crowdfunding.

Airsorted’s mission has always been to make home sharing hassle-free for everyone, and so now, the founders say, the focus is clear: “global dominance”.

They want to be present in 38 markets by the end of 2019 and explore new technologies, such as smart scheduling and automatic communication with the people staying in the properties. They say their holistic service is popular among landlords, frequent travellers and homeowners letting their home for a fixed period, ensuring a diverse and sustainable client base.

With Airbnb offering four million listings across 190 countries, the market for companies to piggyback on their service is huge.

Airsorted has already had huge success doing this, and the founders are firmly established among Britain’s top young entrepreneurs – as demonstrated in their appearance among the top 10 of our Startups 100 list for 2018.