Traveler's Edition
Nightswapping has changed the way it interacts with its users and the overall user experience. Its followed in the steps of Tinder and introduced the concept of ‘matching’ to the travel industry – and as you suspected there is swiping involved.
In the past Nightswapping has always been about connecting travelers with hosts in their desired city. By hosts offering their place up to travelers they earn ‘free night stays’ in other cities in return. Basically hosting nights are your currency.
The biggest change to the French company was when they released their new mobile design, the search feature changed dramatically and now the host has to match with your request and you will be shown options through a swiping method.
Another interesting new feature is their ‘Surprise me’ option that is available when asked ‘Where do you want to go?’ this is to prevent users from heading to the famous cities and allows the less obvious destinations to have more exposure.
The company’s marketing manager for the US, Quentin Mittelette, said that fantastic properties were been overlooked due to this fact, like an charming treehouse cottage in Laguna Back, CA, a stunning Stonehouse in Petersburg, NY or a castle on the outskirts of Lyon, France.
There’s still the option to filter your search, however this option is only available to those who have listed their place online. It could be seen as a risky move, because most people have a destination in mind where they want to travel, but the spontaneity aspect of this new feature is in-line with most traveler’s values. This feature also successfully differentiates Nightswapping from similar accommodation sharing apps such as Couchsurfing or Airbnb.
We tried the app ourselves and are eager to find a match. Of course, this kind of app relies on plenty of active members and hosts in order for it to work at its best. However, we have hope that Nightswapping is on the edge of breaking into the mainstream. Currently France and Italy are its leading markets, but more than 15 percent of the users are based in North America and it seems that the company is looking to heavily invest in this market.
The company shared numbers that look promising and demonstrates the potential of the company. Currently they have more than 150,000 members in 160 countries and 30,000 places listed online – these numbers have a growth rate of 5-10 percent each month.
Conclusion we’re keeping Nightswapping on our travel radar – and so should you.
