Show HN: Roam – Global co-living subscription | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: Roam – Global co-living subscription

roam.co

87 pointssushimako40 comments

I spent about 3 years full time on Airbnb, living in various places (Shanghai, Berlin, NYC, DC, SF, LA...). I wouldn't call myself a "digital nomad", but I think I'm familiar enough with this concept to formulate an opinion:

- Without a network of locations, what you have is effectively a boutique hotel (an expensive one at that).

- If you're starting with Ubud at 1,600 USD/month, how will you make the economics work once you open pricier locations (e.g. Miami).

- User experience is really bad. Even after getting some hints from the comments here, I struggled to sign up and still have absolutely 0 idea of what's happening or what I should I do after I did.

- No info upfront is pretty shady. You're literally expecting to sign people up with a logo and a blurry picture.

- No Instagram pictures? Why linking it then? Why linking to AngelList too? How's that relevant to the average user?

- Who is the user here? People with very high disposable income who are into Capoeira and creating startups?

The list goes on.

Overall, I'm just confused. It looks like a boutique hotel for yoga/health fanatics, at a high price and with little to no information to explain the value.

If you're serious about it:

- Hire somebody to rethink your user experience,

- Rethink your pricing,

- Maybe wait until you have at least a second location before calling it a network.

$1600 for a month? In Indonesia? In that room? No wonder you decided to hide the price until someone actually wants to sign-up.

EDIT: Just took a quick look at Airbnb for Indonesian rentals. I found this: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/5021049 It's cheaper than a room from Roam.

The price is intended to be across a global network and there are more locations coming. The space in Bali is completely brand new with contemporary architecture, and an adjacent restaurant and open rooftop space where there are regular acroyoga jams and capoeira classes.

If you want to find an individual room or villa to have by yourself, there are cheaper alternatives in the area. But the reality is that the inventory of larger properties -- say 20 to 50 units -- that are large enough to support an internal community, is much smaller across the whole island and the world, frankly speaking. The whole point of the project is community living in multiple parts of the globe, not being on your own or moving day-to-day from different Airbnbs (which is totally fine too!) So it really depends on your personal preferences of what kind of living space you think is right for you. (And lots of people have lots of different preferences, and that's OK.)

$1600 will get you a room in more than 10 locations by the end of the year, that's where the real value is. I am actually staying the the Ubud location at the moment. It's very well done, the community is great and location is just right. This is not something you can find on Airbnb.

So can you occupy rooms in more than one location at the same time?

No?

Then it's just a really expensive room with high booking/cancellation flexibility and customer lock-in (you won't pick another room in a city if you've already paid for this).

So this seems to be basically just a premium version of what a youth hostel line membership gets you. Not that there's anything wrong with that, I can imagine that the business model might work.

(If the answer is actually "Yes" then I'm surprised and 1600$ doesn't seem so bad.)

Here is one scenario that I see happening - "I leave my $2500 apartment in NYC and I put my freelance developer job in my carry-on. I buy my flights and pay rent for a year at The Roam. I want 2 months in Bali, 4 months in Japan and 6 months Miami." I am taken care of and I don't have to worry about searching for the right location or meeting the right people. It seems pretty good to me.

But you could live in a hotel for that kind of money in great part of the world.

$1600 is roughly an 8 night stay in Miami, at a decent hotel. I think this is a great deal for me as I can stay anywhere they are available when I want. I already pay over $2000 for a single bedroom apartment in downtown Fort Lauderdale - and I am stuck here in a lease for a year.

Just pay for this when you're in Miami then, not when you're in Indonesia

What happens if all the rooms are full in Japan when you get there?

Looks pretty similar to the room in Ubud a motorbike tout found me for about $6 per night on a short term basis.

That said, most of the startup oriented stuff in Ubud seems to peg its prices to the Western world rather than local norms: there's coworking space in the City of London that costs about the same as Hubud, for example. Guess it depends on whether the community is worth paying the sort of premium the average middle class Australian holidaymaker won't.

I know a few people who are (separately from one another) working on the same concept. Good luck. The idea is right, and there can be multiple winners in the space. Paying a monthly subscription to be able to "live" in a few major cities is inevitable. The world is getting smaller every day and this is very feasible now.

For $1600 a month I'd expect solo-living not co-living.

for that amount i'd rent you my house, quit my job and go on a never ending holiday. it's out of touch with reality.

Co-Founder here, happy to answer any questions.

Some of you might know this from last year when we put the idea out there with a wonderfully unpronounceable name http://www.thecaravanserai.co ...

The website is pretty and all but there is no information anywhere. How much does it cost? How long is the lease for? I would hope I don't need to make an account just to get that information.

I'm the perfect target for this kind of service — I've been living as a "digital nomad" since July last year, primarily using Airbnb for accomodation, working in cafes and coworking spaces.

The website seems really light on information (at least without signing up) — how much is it going to cost?

Update with the price and 1,600, also putting together an FAQ with all the questions that popped up today.

It should be cheaper, but more importantly, we've got to own a share.

It should [also] work like that: you deposit say $200k, you get live in any location described, later on you can sell your share at market price that factors in all the property Roam owns multiplied by your share.

It's like instead of buying a home, you buy a slot in Roam.

Of course you can make shares tiered.

Yes, that is a very cool future vision. :) Difficult to execute at this particular moment in time, so seeing if people will bite at location-independent leases is a first step.

Yeah that's a neat idea. The only thing is: how is the market price calculated?

Whatever people are ready to pay. Say you can sell and transfer your share to another person at any time.

I would sign up for that tomorrow, depending on how much ongoing costs were. Definitely not at $1600, however.

There is Hapimag of Switzerland, who's been doing that for holidays in Europe for quite some time. Nearly impossible to get rid of the shares we inherited though.

That's just a timeshare, right? Timeshare initial deposits are notoriously bad investments; the ongoing fees are sometimes closer to break even vs. other housing/hotel choices, but with less flexibility.

(You can buy timeshares on eBay for close to $0)

From their FAQ: " Is Hapimag a timeshare company?

In legal terms, Hapimag is a public limited company whose shareholders are simultaneously the users of the offer. In this respect, Hapimag is a user- and not profit-oriented cooperative of like-minded people. Hapimag members purchase rights of residence for all Hapimag resorts. This idea has been successful for over 50 years. Hapimag is considered to be the inventor of points-based rights of residence and enjoys the reputation of a professional, trustworthy provider."

None of your js or css files are loading for me :/

Very interesting concept.

I was surprised that most of the open jobs are not remote, I expected the company to be very open about this and possibly even promoting/preferring this, sort of eating your own dog food.

Despite having listed locations, the team is incredibly mobile. Half are dogfooding.

If anyone is interested in co-living around the world with other people in tech, Hacker Paradise will be in Bali from March 13 - April 9 with ~30 people.

We've been up and running for a year and a half now, organizing 1-3 month trips for developers, designers, and entrepreneurs all over the world (Bali, Costa Rica, Barcelona, Tokyo, etc.).

Before Bali, we'll be in Vietnam. Afterwards, we'll be in Thailand for a month and then in Portugal for the summer.

Check out our site for more info: www.hackerparadise.org

Also happy to answer questions here.

Even if this is a global network, if this is your game it seems like just sticking around Central America and Southeast Asia and you can live at a fraction of the cost with plenty of amenities.

I'm sure you could put a nicer picture of the room.

What are the intended costs of the program?

$1600/mo for a bedroom with en-suite bathroom. Also included are a communal kitchen, co-working space and perfect wifi/internet signal and speed. Some places have a pool :)

This sounds like a good idea, but the price seems high for the location you're offering. I'm not trying to be overly critical here, but what else are you bringing to the table? At $1600 in SE Asia, I can get my own 1bdrm apartment, coworking space, and eat out for every meal. I'm currently in Bangkok - I pay $750 for a very large, serviced 1 bdrm, $150 for a coworking membership, and couldn't spend $800 on food if I tried. Admittedly, Bangkok is about the cheapest example - but that is probably why there are so many nomads here.

Bali is just the first location we launched and Miami being the next we open soon. Many more to come, any regions in particular you'd like to see one opening up?

But why would a user want a subscription if they're going to spend a month or months at locations that don't warrant the price? I don't want to subsidize the nicer places if I'm not currently there.

Wow that great!

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