While smart home looks attractive to young people, not all of them have the financial means to obtain smart devices for their apartments. Roomrs, a New York City-based startup, is providing smart apartments in the city to young professionals at relatively low rates.
While smart home looks attractive to young people, not all of them have the financial means to obtain smart devices for their apartments. Roomrs, a New York City-based startup, is providing smart apartments in the city to young professionals at relatively low rates.
The startup offers fully equipped and furnished apartments to young professionals at a monthly rent as low as US$1,100 per bedroom per month. The apartments are located mostly in the Harlem and Bushwick neighborhoods, which already have lower rents than central Manhattan and Brooklyn.
Roomrs leases out its property by bedroom instead of the whole apartment, which makes it possible for its tenants to share costs, space and smart technology in the relatively costly New York City.
Roomrs’ property includes smart locks, smart thermostats and smart beds. It partners with IOTAS, a smart home service provider in rental housing, to bring smart technology into the apartments.
“When we survey our inventory of people living in Roomrs right now, most of them mention smart upgrades and smart technology as something they really like that we offer in terms of additional services,” said Or Goldschmidt, CEO of Roomrs, to Digital Trends.
IOTAS offers a smart home hub and gadgets like smart locks, thermostats and plugs. Eight, a smart mattress maker, provides its products so that tenants at Roomrs can receive their sleeping reports, like how long they slept, how long it took for them to fall asleep and how they may improve sleeping patterns.
“The goal is to make their whole living in the actual apartment better from every point of view, so we can provide more services like ‘smart stuff’ that our demographic really finds appealing,” said Goldschmidt.
Roomrs offers short-term rental of just three months for young professionals, those on internship as well as students who are only staying in the city for a semester. Usually apartments in New York City require a minimum one-year lease.
The company has almost 300 rooms (more than 100 building units) for rent in Manhattan and Brooklyn. It plans to expand its operation from New York City to another city next year.