Another week, another
Travel is Your Business podcast! This episode features Dane Andrews, who co-founded co-living community,
Roam.
The concept behind Roam is a mash-up between hotels, short-term rentals, and co-working communities. What happens when you create spaces for mobile workers to both live and work?
For those that can work from anywhere, these spaces offer the comfort of a community along with the reliability of a co-working space. Remote workers often struggle with productivity, whether due to Internet uptime or finding a quiet workspace in a new city. Roam solves this problem for a specific subset of traveler.
One thing that we learned during this episode was just how that subset of traveler is changing. Roam sees not only the digital nomad but also families and corporate workers on extended stays. For these demographics, the convenience of local community matched with the co-working vibe is an ideal solution. This co-working/co-living trend is shifting the way that travelers, hotels, freelancers, and even business travelers are choosing to travel. Listen to hear more from Dane and his Roam journey.
http://b15622f8bac747a9d683-7cb386b99a512f0beac16a0010b313c0.r24.cf5.rackcdn.com/tiyb_ep_035_roam.mp3
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An international network of co-living spaces…
What does it mean to be location independent? Dane Andrews, Co-Founder and Head of Growth at Roam (a co-living and co-working community testing the boundaries between work, travel and life adventure) joins John Matson and Nick Vivion (tnooz) in the MouthMedia Network studios powered by Sennheiser.
In this episode:
- How Roam provides for people interested in “Nomadicism”, solving logistical things, and how the difference is the people and the community available the instant you’re in a new city
- How usually you just get to know people when you’re leaving and can’t get deep with people, really know them – and Roam allows you to have people in your life in that city immediately, with authentic interaction, with the spaces set up that way
- A lot is about architecture of space, designer by trade, the social dynamics of hospitality, with a focus more than most co-working providers
- How, while looking like an urban city, it is not about price per square foot, and more about setting up for interactions and maximizing happiness
- Common denominators of seeking out happiness, and how curiosity binds people together
- Various global places differ more in logistics than mindset
- Playspaces, and how design and architecture are intended to be inspiring and seeing yourself there
- The origin of Roam International, wanting to see them all over the world
- Viewing Roam spaces them as your home, housing from a different perspective instead of hospitality
- Connecting with people via private social media groups
- The 2,000 alumni (“Roamers”), and how they get stamps on their “passport” for going to all properties
- Next properties in London and Tokyo
- A cornbread story
- The company’s financial model, and how they started with leasing properties,
- Benefitting from the idea of AirBnB being around for years, and how they set precedent for how similar models work
- How Roam has a hotel license, which allows people to stay
- Marketing for the company, as somewhere between an apartment an a hotel
- Andrews’ first trip as a child, and finding oneself, finding a Phoenix local in the “dodgiest” place (Athens)
- Never about being exclusive, and always about inclusive