Mark O'Sullivan 🌎
@markos
Building an alterantive to Airbnb alternative called Caza de Casa () 🏡
The latest blog post that I published for the Caza de Casa blog about the Distrito Palermo in Medellín is appearing in the Images section in the results to a Google Search for "distrito palermo medellin" I've never had this happen before so it feels pretty cool
The UTM links look ugly I went deep down the rabbit hole of looking into how to make them nicer Which lead to me buying a domain for shortened links which will redirect to UTM links Not a priority right now but I thought the domain suited Caza de Casa well so went ahead and got it
Finally started using UTM links to help me determine which WhatsApp groups are getting me the most amount of traffic Before it would have been showing as direct traffic instead of coming from whatsapp The links are a bit long and ugly but that can be fixed in the future with a URL shortener
I spent time this afternoon looking at the total unique users for Caza de Casa the past 6 months A big spike in users during the month of March lead me down the rabbit hole of trying to identify if there was a particular reason for this
The Uneed launch day concluded and Caza de Casa finished #5 Why launch on Uneed? By submitting your product on Uneed earns you a dofollow backlink from a high domain authority site which helps improve your search engine ranking This should help Caza de Casa appear in more search & AI results
42 upvotes and it's got 3 reviews (!) so far today on Uneed Thanks to everyone who's voted so far Hopefully Caza de Casa can get a few more before the day is finished
Caza de Casa is launching today on Uneed I know it's still early in the day but it was really cool to see Caza de Casa in third place If you could find 2 minutes to give Caza de Casa an upvote today it'd be really appreciated 🫶
I recently added screenshots of Caza de Casa in to the Spanish app stores. But before I could publish them I needed add a link in the privacy policy page in Spanish. This wasn't possible with the existing setup for the landing page.
"If you're looking for a better value longer stay it's worth keeping an eye out on platforms like Caza De Casa (available on iOS & Android) who work with local hosts to minimise the booking fees associated with Airbnb and in turn pass on less expensive rates." I love reading shoutouts like these ❤️
Uber is following Airbnb in adding hotel bookings to their platform Uber and Expedia are partnering to offer over 700,000 hotels directly in the app “Uber is now an app for everything,” CEO Dara Khosrowshahi In June the Expedia app will offer Uber rides
Someone on Reddit investigated the 1 year depreciation for many popular 2024 car models by gathering used car prices I love seeing when someone has put time and effort into gathering data and presenting it in such a useful way for the benefit of others
That's ANOTHER Colombian Digital Nomad Visa approved using Genki If you're applying for a Digital Nomad Visa in Colombia you can use Genki as your health insurance provider I used them and got my Colombian Digital Nomad Visa approved genki.world/?with=ca...
Sonder is shutting down It's never nice to see alternatives to Airbnb close down The industry needs MORE competition not less
Próximamente 🇪🇸 This next update for Caza de Casa is going to be HUGE Some of our hosts who joined our waitlist only speak Spanish and so couldn't advertise their properties NOT ANYMORE #BuildInPublic
Caza de Casa X Jetpac Jetpac are one of the leading eSIM providers in the world. Easy to setup. Fast speeds. Always connected. Are you travelling and need to stay connected? Use our code "CASA15" to get 15% off one of their eSIM plans.
In October 2025 Airbnb introduced a social feature that "allow users who meet through an Airbnb experience to stay in touch" Is this a sign of things to come? Will we see Airbnb move to become more of a social network in the future?
The expansion into offering hotel stays suggests Airbnb is becoming more and more like Booking. Booking offer a loyalty program (Genius) to help retain customers. Is it only a matter of time before Airbnb offer something similar?
Charging a lot more than your competitors will only alienate existing users. "paid $44 for a one-hour exercise class on Airbnb, only to find that the woman huffing and puffing beside her paid less than half that on Classpass, a booking site for workouts"
Airbnb still have work to do when it comes to these additional offerings. "Viator, one competitor, offers ten times as many experiences in big cities such as London and New York."
What's the difference between Airbnb Experiences and Airbnb Services? Experiences: Outside your Airbnb (e.g. tour guide) Services: Inside your Airbnb (e.g. private chef)
Airbnb Services was launched in May 2025. This is not the first time Airbnb entered a new market and expanded beyond vacation rentals. Airbnb Experiences launched November 2016 to take on Viator, GetYourGuide and TripAdvisor who offer similar activities and experiences.
To combat this Airbnb has boosted bookings outside of their core markets (Brazil / India) by offering new payment options and increasing marketing efforts.
The core markets (USA, Australia, Britain, Canada & France) represents 50% of nights booked through the platform according to AirDNA. The percentage change year on year in nights booked has been falling in these countries.
How is Airbnb reacted to the growth slowdown? - Growing bookings in new countries (Brazil, India) - Entering new markets (services) - Expanding offerings (hotels) - Testing the water with new ideas (social features)
What has caused the decrease in the rate of growth? - Uncertainty caused by President Donald Trump putting off tourists coming to the USA - Policy makers banning Airbnb or implementing heavy restrictions - Competition from other platforms (Booking, Expedia)
"$86bn-worth of bookings made through the platform in the 12 months to June". A 10% increase vs the previous year. However the rate of growth has been decreasing and analysts predict more signs of slowdown in the Q3 2025 earnings report due on Nov 6.
A couple days ago The Economist published an article leading with this question: "Has Airbnb reached its peak?" A thread 🧵