'Team Godospin' is basically the 'host face' of a Proptech (property tech) company - WinwInntech, now trading as Staykeepers - owned by two London-based Bulgarian brothers in their early 30s, Ivo and Miroslav Godospinov.
Despite having little to no experience in either the property development or hospitality sectors (previous employment includes security guarding and touting for modelling/acting work), the brothers set up 5 seperate companies relating to property leasing, lettings and development in the space of 2 years (2015 to 2017)
4 of those 5 companies were quickly dissolved, with only the original - WinWin Lettings, incorporated in 2015 - still active. (Latest available figures from 2019 show a £0 cash balance, with total assets of £412K, and total liabilities of £1.22M)
In June 2019, the Godospinovs set up yet another company, WinWin Proptech, now trading as Staykeepers, the nature of which has been officially recorded as 'information technology services' - a favourite ploy of certain 'tech' companies (most notably, Airbnb) to exempt themselves from rules, regulations, disclosure requirements and legal obligations that all other companies operating in the property arena are bound by, and must adhere to.
As per 2020 figures, WinWinProptech had just under £11K in cash, and a total net worth of minus £600K. Nevertheless, some sources were placing a valuation of between £18 - £20 million on the company.
You can learn more about Staykeepers here..
https://www.staykeepers.com/
Much of the happy-clappy narrative and buzzwords used throughout will no doubt sound familiar, and make it difficult to work out what the company is really all about. However, a few key paragraphs allow more clarity and insight into the true nature and future plans of the business, and of the corporations with whom they 'collaborate'..
*"Staykeepers helps student accommodation & multifamily operators generate 20 to 60% above long-term market revenue from empty units by accommodating short, mid and long-term residents"*
*"Everything we do is dedicated to creating value and improving the bottom line for institutional landlords"*
*"When it comes with planning restrictions to the developments, we can assist by connecting our clients with third party companies who can assist with obtaining planning permission for accommodation"*
So, what does all this stuff mean, and why does it matter to anyone?
Well, it matters very, very much to anyone who is a small, individual "back to our roots" host on Airbnb. It matters to anyone desperately and unsuccessfully trying to buy a home - or those trying to avoid foreclosure - in the many markets worldwide where 'institutional landlords' (ie PE firms/REITs/vulture funds) are snapping up millions of properties in sweetheart deals, leaving literally nothing available for regular buyers. It matters to anyone who has a son or daughter planning to go to college, only to discover that all the institution-owned purpose-built (cheaply, with lax building requirements) student accommodation is now priced way out of any regular person's league, whilst simultaneously masquerading as 'aparthotels' and 'boutique hotels' on platforms such as Airbnb. It even matters if granny or grandad is in Senior Living accommodation - it's increasingly likely that they could suddenly find themselves living next door to a revolving cast of rowdy short term renters.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-06-25/investors-chasing-housing-target-massive-pools-of...
But where do the likes of Staykeepers come into all this?
It's quite simple really. For some time now, Airbnb has been forging relationships with proptech companies that are developing software for 'end-to-end services' relating to short term rentals, and (ostensibly) mid- to long-term rentals also. There are several different variations on the theme but the basic premise is this - institutional investor buys up (or develops) entire buildings, turns the whole lot into rentals (typically at highly inflated rates), 'allows' the tenants to 'legally' list their places on Airbnb 'when they're away' (exclusively on Airbnb in many instances, such as in the case of vulture fund/Airbnb shareholder/notorious serial evictor of tenants Greystar, for example), and in return, grants the tenant a reduction in their already sky-high rents. Big win for institutional owner, big win for Airbnb, not so much of a win for the tenant, really. And *certainly* not a win for the unfortunate residents who have no wish to participate in such a scheme, but inadvertently find themselves living in a horribly managed giant Airbnb frat-house, with out of control guests marauding through their hallways every night of the week.
Many proptech companies such as Staykeepers also offer to handle property sales for owners (Staykeepers 'partner' with firms such as Savills and CBRE), punting out the properties on Airbnb to fill the void whilst awaiting sales. (Ever wonder why so many guests are complaining bitterly about last minute cancellations by hosts wrecking their holiday plans in recent times..?)
The most notable - and openly publicised "Proptech company as a host" deal that Airbnb has entered into so far is their recent partnership with RealPage, considered by some to be *the* preeminent real estate asset management software firm in the world (and acquired last December by PE firm Thoma Bravo - one of the largest and most active private equity firms in the world - for $9.6 billion). RealPage has come up with a full-service app called 'Migo', and all going to plan, 'Migo' should soon prove to be the biggest, most ubiquitous and most 'successful' Airbnb megahost in the history of the company.
You can read for yourself below how,
"with the Migo home sharing solution at your fingertips, you can harness the power of RealPage® to deliver the only comprehensive suite of technology and services needed to successfully manage, monitor, and monetize home sharing on Airbnb in multifamily communities"
https://www.realpage.com/migo-home-sharing/
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