Reflecting on a decade of UnderTheDoormat 

Ten years have gone by since I founded UnderTheDoormat in 2014, and what a ten years it’s been! 

Last week we had the opportunity to celebrate this milestone at our new London office, where a collection of our investors, suppliers, partners, industry colleagues and our awesome team gathered – some of whom have been with us from the very beginning.  

It was really special to have all of these people, who have been so critical to the company’s success, in the same room for this occasion. It was also a great opportunity to reflect on what we’ve achieved in the decade that we’ve been in this incredible industry. 

I think back to those early days in 2014 when the concept of peer-to-peer short-term rentals was still relatively nascent, and about how much things can change in ten years. I think about the times at the beginning when I was stuffing linens into a suitcase to take to a laundrette for the first properties in our portfolio. Cut to a few years later, and we’d developed a laundry supply chain and helped one of our partners build a whole new vertical for their laundry business – a partnership that still exists today.  

I think about how we started out using a patchwork of disparate technologies, getting frustrated with the disjointed nature of it along the way. This frustration was worth it because we channelled it into building our own software arm, Hospiria, which is now one of the leading SaaS platforms in the industry. 

Even closer to home, another huge milestone came at the end of 2023 with our merger with Veeve, a longtime competitor of ours and a company we had a lot of respect for. Six months in, and I’m happy to report it’s been a huge success – culminating in our smooth transition to a unified head office in London in April.  

One of our best ideas and greatest achievements, though, came during the pandemic. I remember getting a call from a supplier, who told me stories of NHS workers getting thrown out of their apartments while they were on the front lines of the COVID response. Many of the homes in our portfolio were empty and there was a lightbulb moment when we realised, we could solve these two issues simultaneously. 

We spoke to some of our owners and offered our services for free if they would donate their home to accommodate NHS workers free of charge. Within days, we housed our first couple of doctors in a penthouse flat… and before long, it became an industry initiative as part of the Short Term Accommodation Association.  

Our competitors, including Veeve, were keen to collaborate, as were so many others including onefinestay, GuestReady and City Relay. Each company had owners more than willing to donate their homes for the initiative – and with this, Homes for NHS was born. In total, the short-term rental industry delivered approximately £20 million of free stays for NHS workers during the pandemic. UnderTheDoormat and our homeowners together donated £2 million of that total, something I’m incredibly proud of. 

This wasn’t the end of the story though. Throughout this process, we began discussions with the government, which was paying for doctors and other key workers to stay in hotels, sometimes miles away from the healthcare facilities they worked in. In order to keep the operation sustainable, we offered to sell stays commercially to the government.  

They initially rejected this offer on the basis that the industry was too fragmented – so I got on the phone with the CEOs we worked with on Homes for NHS, and we collaborated yet again to solve this problem and win a government contract. This is how TrustedStays was born, and six months later we won the first-ever government contract with a short term rental provider via the Crown Commercial Service. 

TrustedStays has since become an entirely new channel to market for professional companies in our industry, accessing the business and public sector travel market for the whole industry, globally. 

All of this to say, it’s been an interesting ride – a journey is never a straight path, and a lot of different things had to happen for us to be where we are today.  

Our journey started with our very first booking on 11 July 2014 – a beautiful home in Richmond. And now, ten years later, we’re a company that delivers more than £10 million in net revenue, with an amazing team of around 50 people. 

Where did that come from? How did we get here? One word: trust. Our customers trusted us to rent out their homes. We were able to solve some of the problems associated with our industry by focusing on professionalisation, delivering the quality of a hotel in the comfort of homes. This meant robust insurance policies, a commitment to high-quality service and an overall approach to reducing risk for both owners and guests. 

We were also trusted by our investors, which, of course, is a particularly important thing to have their backing. And as the female head and founder of a company, in a world where just 3% of investment goes to female-founded companies… this wasn’t always easy. Luckily, we had some amazing investors who wanted to invest in a great team and a great business.  

I think that’s one of my proudest achievements as a CEO – that we were assessed purely on the merit of our product, our team and our goals for the business and 10 years on we have delivered on those promises, despite the challenges along the way. 

One of our most enduring goals is to continue our commitment to cross-industry cooperation, exemplified in our work with Homes for NHS and TrustedStays. We solve issues and take strides in the sector not just because we want to win the next big contract, but because we see a bigger opportunity for us and the people we collaborate with to grow the industry responsibly. 

At the core of it, that’s who we are as a business: we want to collaborate because the industry has so much potential. The more we work together, the more challenges we’ll overcome, and the more opportunities will be uncovered for all of us. 

So, here’s to the next ten years – and to everyone who’s helped us achieve this incredible milestone, thank you. 

If you want to watch a recording of my speech from the 10 Year Anniversary Party, click the button below.