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The COVID-19 era has seen a dramatic rise in private residence vacations. Folks often opt to stay in accommodations like secluded Airbnbs instead of hotels, to better protect their families and other vacationers. In November, Canadian-based MPP Software launched a new digital home sharing and rental platform called Eligere (pronounced ell-ee-zjhair). But this is no Airbnb.
Eligere, an online property sharing service, allows homeowners to exclusively share their properties with their friends, family, and colleagues. Only folks with whom you’ve shared your link can see your listing or request a booking.
“The concept was born out of frustration,” says Colin Moreland, CEO of MPP Software. Moreland likes his family and friends to enjoy his quarter share of a mountain cabin whenever he can’t be there himself. But there was never an easy way to organize the schedule of who stays at the cabin—shared Excel spreadsheets just weren’t cutting it.
“It’s not costing me any more to sit empty than it is to stay full,” he says. “Somebody that I know and care about should get the benefit from it.” Eligere was his answer for how to do it without all the headaches.
Eligere allows users to set their own availability and nightly rates. It also supports something that no other property sharing platform supports: zero-dollar bookings. If you own a property that you like to share with your close family and friends, Eligere helps you make that happen, in an organized fashion, and without necessarily charging your guests.
Since only folks who receive your link can view your property, you can rest assured that you won’t be facing a security risk when you’re out of town. “The public cannot see that you have a property listed,” says Moreland. “When we interviewed some of our initial homeowners, that was one of things they were most bothered by even with other private booking platforms.” Eligere puts major focus into privacy and security.
Here’s how it works: a homeowner registers on Eligere’s website and chooses a subscription package (more on pricing in a bit). Then they add their property and its availability, and share their link with their peer group. Folks who want to view and book properties shared with them must also register for an account, but don’t need to pay a fee.
Eligere supports properties worldwide, and currently allows transactions in US dollars, Canadian dollars, Pounds Sterling, and Euros. “We’ve developed the system with an international base in mind,” says Moreland.
The platform just as easily supports folks who want to charge a low nightly rate to cover the operational costs of letting others stay at their properties, or folks who rent out one of their properties as a supplementary form of income but are unsatisfied with security measures on other rental platforms.
If you are looking for that supplementary income, Eligere can be a much more cost-effective option than Airbnb. On platforms like Airbnb and Vrbo, “effectively there’s an 18% overhead on the average homeowner to book with their site now,” explains Moreland. “Eligere aims to be more of a subscription service than a fee per transaction service.” Their Elite package is about $45 per month, or about $11 per week. On Airbnb, if your nightly rate was only $100 per night, that would run you about $126 for the week.
“At about 10% the cost, you can afford a much lower occupancy rate and still come out making the same amount of money,” says Moreland.
In the future, Eligere aims to apply their same ideals to other luxury assets, like private helicopters, speedboats, or sports cars. “This is who we’ve really got in mind,” says Moreland. “Individuals with desirable assets that are often sitting unused.” Whether it’s a beach house or a private plane, Eligere wants to increase the utilization of these assets so more people can enjoy them.
For more information, visit eligere.luxury.