“Living like a local,” checking out the nearby farmers market and returning to cook your own meal in a comfy pad in a city you’re visiting, has its appeal.
Airbnb has had a stranglehold on that extended-stay market, but there are risk factors (e.g., safety issues, wild parties and disgruntled owners whose homes have been rented out by tenants).
A new player, Roost Apartment Hotel, a Philadelphia-based company with one hybrid apartment-hotel under its belt and a second opening in Rittenhouse Square next month, is targeting New York next.
Roost co-founders Randy Cook, the former COO of corporate housing firm Korman Communities, and David Grasso, a real estate developer, are scouting locations in Manhattan as well as in Brooklyn.
They say their model, which gives guests an apartment-hotel residence with chic interiors, bridges the gap between Airbnb and hotels. The minimum stay is a week, with one-bedroom stays starting at $225 a night.
Their business model aims to have three to four Roosts in each city, and to open 15 to 20 Roosts in the next 10 years.
