Jeremy Hurst with the SpacetoCo team Daniel McCullen, Daniel Franco and Mike Evans (Acting Director of Commercialisation).
Camera IconJeremy Hurst with the SpacetoCo team Daniel McCullen, Daniel Franco and Mike Evans (Acting Director of Commercialisation). Credit: Supplied/Supplied

SpacetoCo: new Perth Hills start up aims to be game-changer in rental market in the mould of Uber and Airbnb

Sarah BrookesMidland Kalamunda Reporter

UBER and Airbnb disrupted the taxi and hotel industries and now a new start up company in the Perth Hills is aiming to be a game-changer in the traditional rental market.

SpacetoCo is a new web platform that lists spaces for hire for anything from weddings, to tennis games to business meetings.

Co-founder Jeremy Hurst said the idea came to him in 2015 while at home feeding his newborn son.

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“My wife and I had just become Airbnb Hosts and 10 months earlier we married in our backyard in the Perth Hills,” he said.

“It suddenly occurred to me that if we could be married in our own backyard, maybe others could too.

“We were already sharing accommodation spaces so why not share more?

“From here the idea exploded into a massive range of potential space sharing ideas from sharing a tennis court through to a commercial kitchen, gymnasium or even a music recording studio.”

Mr Hurst said SpacetoCo was free to use and anyone could list as many spaces as they liked for no charge.

“The site shows live availability, pictures, a detailed description and a list of amenities,” he said.

“Once you find a space, you can message the host or book straight away.

“SpacetoCo not only creates a revenue stream for everyday people by providing them with the ability to leverage their existing assets it also keeps money in local area economies.

“We are also working with several local government entities to trial the online booking of their community facilities using SpacetoCo.

“Many civic buildings have a low occupancy rate due to a lack of awareness in the community of building availability, outdated manual methods of hire and poor marketing.”

Mr Hurst said the start up was unique in the world.

“There are other online space sharing businesses, but most of these act as aggregator or listing services which do not provide the convenience of locational online booking that SpacetoCo offers,” he said.

“Of the handful of space sharing sites that do offer online booking, most tend to be geared towards work and business only.

“SpacetoCo aims to be a complete community space sharing offering.”

Mr Hurst said SpacetoCo made a small clip on each booking much the same way as Airbnb or Uber.

SpacetoCo is one of seven WA start-ups to receive development funding for their innovations as part of grants from SPUR, WA’s location technology hub, powered by Landgate in Midland.

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