Anybody who’s ever rented a private home on platforms like Airbnb or Vrbo, or has tried to rent out their home on one of those platforms, can tell you the same sad story. Sometimes the places are as advertised, and sometimes the renters are as advertised. But sometimes, that’s far from the case.
“Let’s say you have a luxury vacation home,” says Jorge Munoz, cofounder and CEO of Stay One Degree, a high-end vacation home-renting platform. “After your primary home, it’s probably the biggest expenditure you’ve ever made. But you’re only using it for a few weeks or a few months a year. You’d like to extract value, but you’re afraid of putting it up on one of the regular websites, because you never know who you’re going to get as a guest.”
“There are no shortages of disappointing rental experiences from both homeowners and guests across other platforms,” Munoz continues. “Stay One Degree is the game changer at the forefront of redefining the luxury rental space. We are committed to ensuring total confidence and sense of security for both owner and renter, through creating a vetted community of like-minded travelers.”
Homeowners renting out their properties on other platforms face threats such as theft, vandalism, changing the locks and even the installation of surreptitious cameras in bedrooms and bathrooms.
“It’s not so easy for the renter, either,” Munoz says. “Typically, other platforms don’t vet the properties before listing them on their website. Stay One Degree offers this peace of mind where others don’t.”
Munoz’s desire to extract value from his own vacation home, a beautiful residence in Spain, led him and a business partner to cofound Stay One Degree, a platform that thoroughly vets both the over 3,500 properties it lists, as well as the renters who would like to enjoy unique vacation experiences. The result, Munoz says is, “a collection of properties that have been uniquely hand-picked alongside a community of renters, all of whom have been verified.”
As a result, you can be guaranteed more unique and exquisite options, you won’t be disappointed on your vacation days with a property that doesn’t measure up to the listing, and as an owner, you’ll feel secure about the people setting foot in your beautiful home.
“You can find something for everyone on our website, from an architectural masterpiece in the heart of Provence, a one-bedroom cabin idyll in the desert oasis of Yucca Valley, a chalet in a national park in Alaska, an eco-treehouse in Brazil…there’s no end to the variety and uniqueness you can find,” Munoz says.
“Our most exclusive properties include our private island in Ibiza, reserved for our most discerning members,” he continues. “However, we pride ourselves on having unique properties globally which meet a range of personal tastes and preferences. We individually hand-pick every home in our portfolio, our criteria is simple: Would we love to stay there ourselves?”
Stay One Degree currently offers more than 3,500 homes in over 250 destinations on their website, and the fact that you are not paging through hundreds of properties that are not a fit—as on the more middle-class vacation home rental websites—makes life simpler.
Stay One Degree is part of the trend that major hotel chains—Accor, Starwood and Marriott—are picking up on, namely that people who travel frequently for business or pleasure are looking for new experiences but want the security of a brand they trust.
The Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, picking up on this trend as well, has made a $5 million investment in Stay One Degree and offers combined experiences with the platform, such as a Stay & Sail experience that includes two nights in the Mandarin Oriental in Miami and a full-day experience on a Stay One Degree-vetted luxury yacht.
“The more information you share about yourself,” Munoz says, “the easier it is for us to match you with properties that meet your personal requirements. You also have the security of knowing that every single property on our website is thoroughly vetted, all homes must pass a 300-point quality check to ensure they meet the highest quality standards. The result is a great vacation for the traveler and a great arrangement for the property-owner. Everybody wins.”
