It's official: the sharing economy is fucking with us.
Mashable and Laughing Squid reported today that a new website has launched to help people find a place to stay when their house is being rented on Airbnb.
The service is aptly named "www.canistaywithyouwhileirentmyplaceonairbnb.com". It's like somewhere, some people were sitting in a boardroom going, "Gee, what should we call this business that lets people stay at other people's houses while they rent their places on Airbnb?" and then someone else was like, "BINGO! LET'S GO GET LUNCH!"
The website is the brainchild of a creative collective in Minnesota. Mashable reports that the main forces behind this business are several web designers and developers who were also responsible for the launch of a sharing app called Divvy earlier this year. Divvy allows friends, relatives, or strangers to "divvy" up the price of an expensive item like a new TV or a scooter and make it more affordable.
Back to CISWYWIRMPOABNB. The site says that they do not offer compensation to people who let wayward Airbnb hosts crash at their pad but they do encourage users to pony up in other ways. The official options are "Six packs," "Plunder," and "Swaps," meaning you can either pay the host a portion of what you made when renting your own house out, let them stay at your house some night, or just buy them a beer.
Founders of the site were not available to comment when The Bold Italic reached out to them but anyone interested in participating in this service can input their city and email into the site and CISWYWIRMPOABNB will get back to you shortly with a list of available homes in your area. In the meantime you can check out their uninformative (if very funny) Twitter feed.
If you need me, I've rented out my desk to the Task Rabbit who will be writing all of the rest of my articles while I go to the Task Rabbit's house and spoon with their boyfriend who they have also rented to me.
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Image via the official website.
Via Mashable and Laughing Squid