Nestpick

History

Dudek founded nestpick in response to his difficulty in finding appropriate student accommodation and because of what he perceived as the negative role of agent agencies and rental scams in the real estate market. Dr. Patricia Moubarak, a former surgeon, foodpanda director and McKinsey & Company principal, joined nestpick in December 2014 as COO and co-founder.

The company experienced rapid expansion since its founding, culminating in Dudek winning two awards for young entrepreneurs in the Netherlands, and an investment from Berlin-based startup incubator Rocket Internet. The company subsequently moved from Rotterdam to Berlin. Nestpick added more cities and countries to its platform, resulting in a total of 25 cities and 8 countries in which the company offered its services. 2015 also saw the company criticised for failing to adhere to its own quality standards, vis-a-vis verification of listed properties.

Towards the middle of 2015, the company was restructured and began implementing a growth strategy. On 2 November 2015, nestpick closed its Series A funding, receiving €11 million USD from Mangrove Capital Partners, Target Global and Rocket Internet.

In April 2016, nestpick made 46 of its 66 employees redundant. Fabian Dudek and Patricia Moubarak left the company shortly afterwards, and the management of the company was passed over to Rocket Internet.

Concept

Nestpick is often compared to other platforms such as Airbnb and Wimdu, although the differences between them are significant. Whereas Airbnb focuses on short-term rentals within the ‘sharing economy’ model, nestpick lists mid- to long-term housing from more traditional landlords. In this sense, nestpick’s primary competitors are traditional off- and online real estate agencies, not online vacation rental platforms.

Nestpick’s platform allows tenants to search and book mid- to long-term rental properties online, without the need for in-person viewings. After a tenant has made a booking request, a landlord has 48 hours to accept or decline the booking. The deposit is transferred to nestpick during the booking process and is passed onto the landlord 48 hours after the tenant has moved in. Contractual matters, key exchange etc. remain the responsibility of the landlord.

Key features

Unlike real estate classifieds, nestpick doesn't simply connect a prospective tenant to a landlord: its platform facilitates the booking of a property and the paying of a deposit without requiring in-person viewings. Using this approach, the company aims to streamline the rental process, allowing a tenant to rent a property safely and from anywhere in the world.

Nestpick offers guarantees to both its tenants and landlords: 'Nest Assured' to the former and the 'Full Nest Guarantee' to the latter.

A tenant may be eligible for the Nest Assured policy if the property is different from that described on nestpick’s website. nestpick will offer a tenant up to 30 days in a hotel, free of charge, whilst the company attempts to find a suitable property.

For landlords who have previously accepted a booking on the platform, the Full Nest Guarantee guarantees that if nestpick cannot find a tenant within a given period, the company will pay the rent themselves. Landlords who list with nestpick can also make use of a dashboard allowing them to list their property before it becomes available, meaning tenants can book in advance minimising a property's vacant periods.

Competitors

Although similar in appearance and functionality as Airbnb, nestpick's competitors are offline realtors and online mid- to long-term providers. Its online competitors are platforms such as Uniplaces, spotahome, weroom and housinganywhere.

Locations

As of February 2016, nestpick is active in the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Austria, France, Ireland, Australia, the UK and Germany. The nestpick website is available in six languages.

By April 2016, nestpick was only active in Berlin, Germany and Rotterdam, Netherlands.