Listening to the Potential of the Co-Living Business in the Digital Age

An already established ecosystem offered by the boarding house sector or what is now known as co-living, became an opportunity that startups like RoomME. Platforms that specificallycater These boarding house owners and seekers are trying to accelerate the company's acceleration by educating and further introducing technology and using applications to make it easier for boarding house owners and seekers.

In the #Tuesdaystartup issue, DailySocial Presenting RoomME Co-Founder & COO Winoto Hartanto.

boarding house business transformation

Since the first, the concept of boarding house has been very familiar to the people of Indonesia. By prioritizing a family culture and a close relationship between the owner and the seeker, this business never subsides and is always ogled by the boarding house owners. Seeing this potential, the founders of RoomME tried to find opportunities which could then be explored to target this sector.

"Since long ago, this business has been known by the name boarding house. But nowadays when many investors are coming in and to simplify more general terms, co-living then introduced, but did not leave the essence of the business," said Winoto.

banyak insight which was later discovered by Winoto along with other colleagues when later starting to build RoomME. Starting from feedback which is quite a lot from the owner of the boarding house to the technological ability to make it easier for both parties. This is what differentiates platforms like RoomME from other similar platforms.

"From the start, we have focused on providing services to boarding house owners as well as boarding house seekers, different from other platforms, most of which are boarding houses marketplace only," said Winoto.

Pandemic accelerates acceleration

Asked whether the pandemic hampered RoomME's business growth, Winoto emphasized that at the beginning of the pandemic, he had experienced problems. But on the other hand the pandemic has also created creativity among RoomME management and team to move faster.

These include accelerating digital and educating owners and seekers. Education is a powerful way that is claimed to be able to accelerate awareness and digital adoption to the target market of RoomME.

"Using the application, we strive to provide information and convenience for boarding house owners to manage their boarding house business. Meanwhile, for boarding house seekers, utilizing the application gives them the flexibility of finding boarding houses anywhere and anytime," said Winoto.

In particular, RoomME offers two service options for boarding house owners, namely for those who want to have the freedom to manage their boarding house business and a service that makes it easier for boarding house owners when they want to get directly involved in managing their business.

"So far, with the education that we have launched, we have not encountered any problems. From various circles, young and old, they have adopted RoomME technology very well," said Winoto.

Looking ahead RoomME sees the future of business co-living Indonesia is very bright, as seen from the stable interest among boarding house seekers and the large number of them owning boarding houses in Jabodetabek. Expansion to reach a wider market is also the next RoomME plan.

"Last year we were present in Jabodetabek, next year we plan to expand to Bandung and Yogyakarta. In the future RoomME wants to be a platform that unites industries that are still very fragmented, said Winoto.