RoomOnDemand

Inspiration: Access to real estate is proving to be an impediment in our fight against coronavirus. That should not be the case.

What it does:

Leverages vacant and underutilized real estate to amplify our fight against coronavirus. Specifically, we are working on 2 use cases:

Now: Healthcare workers need alternative accommodations for fear of infecting their families. Short term rental operators have a lot of vacant apartment units close to hospitals. We want to match doctors with STR operators

Mid Week: Math says that some zip codes will run out hospital beds and ICU units. The same zip codes have unused spaces in schools and churches. Working in collaboration with LoftySpot, we want to apprise hospitals and local governments of these spaces, and assist them in their decision making

How I built it

1> TBD

Challenges I ran into

1> Tech: LoftySpace is written in Ruby, the developers primarily know JS 2> Design: 3> Real Estate: Building supply has been easier than anticipated. Now we need to identify the right demand channels to ensure utilization of supply

Accomplishments that I'm proud of

1> Tech: 2> Design: 3> Real Estate:

a) On the healthcare side, we have units live on the platform and are talking/have reached out to most leading short term rental operators across the country like Zeus, Sonder, Domio, Lyric and Stay Alfred.

b) On the larger spaces, we are actively collaborating with LoftySpot to identify sites to accommodate hospital beds and ICU units

What I learned

1> Hackathons can be efficient and fun

What's next for RoomOnDemand

1> Evaluate initial response, incorporate feedback and tweak product until we get product-market fit 2> Adopt a flat pricing model for all rooms on the portal. It is conceivable that we will be able to get healthcare workers to stay in high-quality units for as little as $30 / night through discounting and sponsorships 3> Add inventory to both products -rooms for docs and spaces for hospitals- and reach out to organizations willing to rent or donate space. 4> UI/UX, continue refining product