I forget which app it was, but when in the US for the Boston Marathon this year, my friend and I used one of these systems. It was amazing - we left one set of cards and a phone in a bag the day before, plus clothes. We could then finish the race, go to the shop to get our bag (a chinese health store - they stored it in a back room), and get changed, then go have beers. No need to go back to our hotel (which was near Hopkinton).
It's actually a more legitimate service I think than the likes of uber, as it is anciliary service for more income for small shops (we also bought 'candy' when in the store - a bit more revenue for them), as opposed to people relying on it to make a living.
This sounds great. I would compare it more to airbnb - using someone's stuff that would otherwise go unused. So actually extracting lost value. Uber might one day become that (I hear the typical personal car goes unused something like 90% of the day), but when everything is self-driving.
I think the days of Airbnb being "rent out a spare room" are gone, whenever I look, most Airbnb properties tend to be used as dedicated short-term lets and has supplanted the old holiday letting market.
I've seen a mix. Some are definitely dedicated AirBnB rentals where it's obvious the owners are professional landlords; but we've stayed in ADUs where owners occupied the primary residences, cottages being rent out part-time, etc.
It's been an incredible model. We've already paid out $100's of thousands of revenue to small business owners in new "found" revenue. It's a totally new income stream and in many cases helps with rising rents and declining retail.
One difference is that using unused space is free (other than the transaction cost/effort). Whereas most of the cost associated with using a car is mileage rather than time based. So while there's some cost associated with a car sitting unused, there's even more cost associated with putting miles on it.
Rent is a fixed cost so if a shop is already paying $5k / month in rent, and they can turn an unused or repurposed closet into a $1k / month revenue stream, they are very happy. Not to mention all the new people (hopefully patrons) coming into their store!
The Uber bit makes little sense to me. If Uber takes my car at night, then I doubt I'll make much money, since not many people are out at night. And if it takes my car in the day, then I don't have immediate access to the car when I need it, which is the entire reason I use my car as opposed to a bus or a train.
I think for a certain class of workers, their car is used exactly once to get to work and once to get back. If that were the case I could see Uber usefully taken control of the car in between.
A better example would have been Waze Carpool or even older the practice of "slugging" which finds riders needing to go a similar way and saves toll or gas.
As a side hustle it reminds me a bit of the parcel reception service that a lot of shops in France and elsewhere do. Very useful for Amazon etc if you’re not at home. I’ve always wondered if they’re paid for it, or do it for free Hoping it will bring customers. Probably half way between
So awesome to hear this. Bounce is very present in Boston with more than 30 locations. We didn't develop that market until summer, however. We love runners and it's super cool to hear this story. Do you have any ideas for how we get the word out to that community?
>Do you have any ideas for how we get the word out to that community?
sponsor some running races. There's a ton of smaller (200-300 participant) races happening in cities all across the country every weekend that would love a sponsor and be happy to tell their racers about your service. $1000 and a couple t-shirts to be given out as draw prizes would make you a major sponsor.
Sponsoring races might work, semi-major ones who have a magazine and you can suggest it to, but that's going to cost (I've no idea on your funding, and don't need to know).
The freeone would be an adverotial type approach in something like Runner's World. They're always desperate for content, so delivering it on a plate (happy for my example to be used) they would probably like. Always free to ask.
Then there is the manual option - hitting all the facebook groups that exist, and the twitter, sugges0ting for all races (likely half and full marathons). You are probably too late for Houson Marathon tomorrow, but that's a good one where people will be in the same position.
Ultimately you are relying on word of mouth, but it's how you get that initial buzz!
If runners world are interested, theres probably some way of contacting me through here (I've now idea on the best way) and I am happy to add in to the story with some concrete details. For me it was a long day at the office and not what I wanted (2:54), but at least it's a respectable time which may help their interest too.
This is a pretty vibrant space with many startups trying to solve the problem.
It's been sparked by the raise of Airbnbs which rarely offer luggage storage.
A similar trend is in self checkin solutions.
It's interesting to note the herd effect on this kind of startups: it becomes easier and easier to raise capital to solve problems many others are trying to solve already.
And if you can show traction that you're growing far faster than similar companies, it becomes much much easier to raise capital.
When we were starting Bounce, we noticed players in their local markets. We weren't impressed with the product or execution at the time. It's been really interesting to see the development and some of these players have done quite well.
It seems like most folks started with a slightly different idea but the market pulled everyone closer to the same thing.
I wanted to start something like this many years ago (and I still cannot find anything like it in the cities I go to); I travel a lot for work and I want to leave a suitcase in every city I travel to every few months so I can just take my laptop on the plane. The places that exist only do 24-48 hours max or are very expensive (can rent an apartment for just a little more). So yeah, airbnb for luggage.
Where have you needed this? Will add it to our expansion roadmap! Keep a look out for us next time. We're in 72 cities now and that number will at least double this year.
I was thinking of adding some other services as well as all people (expats) were looking for those; buying stuff for you and putting it into suitcases for instance.
I have a room full with crap; even at $1/day per case (which I would pay long term), I can put enough cases in there and easily get them out to pay triple the mortgage on the entire house every month... All my chinese and thai friends (where I store stuff now) would gladly long term store cases in their houses: 20-30 of them for sure.
Short term they would not but 2 weeks or more; many people working abroad would jump at that.
I have always dreamed of someone providing me all the essentials I need on a vacation - toothpaste brush comb etc and having it ready at airport or hotel. At a reasonable price.
Seems I always forget something or forget to bring it home. Would be nice just to not stress about them during packing and just focus on clothes laptop etc
As a general tip, if you travel enough, keep a travel kit that you can just toss in a bag. For toiletries, I just have a 1 quart Ziplock I only use for travel. And I have another little kit bag that contains a bunch of odds and ends I may need while traveling.
I don't keep dupes of everything. My cables and plugs bag is the same one I use day-to-day. But I do keep a general travel pile that has most of the stuff I may need on a trip other than clothing--which varies by location/season/type of trip.
Sounds like a great idea for Bounce to support someday! Thank you for describing this! We want to create a world where your things never hold you down - you always have access to what you need!
There are luggage shipment services although the one time I tried to use one internationally I ended up with customs issues.
And that was also a weird case where I had a hiking trip after a multi-leg business trip so I didn't want to lug all my gear with me. In general, I travel lightly enough that I'm not checking luggage anyway.
Would this entail buying several sets of clothing, tailoring them if needed (some of us can't buy clothing off the shelf), doing laundry and stashing them in the local locker every time you visit?
TBH, most people have extra clothing. It's very common for people who have timeshares or vacation condos of some sort to leave clothing and other necessities so that they don't need to pack it all every time. Of course, if you can't buy clothing off the shelf, you'll probably have a lot less than many people do.
Ah I'm much too much of a dandy for that to work for me, but I can see this working for some folks.
Also, the other problem for me is temperature, formality etc. -- for city i with mᵢ seasons, and nᵢ situations (casual, formal, etc.), I have to own ∑ᵢ mᵢnᵢ sets of clothing.
I doubt you'd find a business charging that little. $100/month seems to be about the floor for self-storage generally although the space is normally larger.
There are luggage delivery services but they're fairly expensive especially if you normally get free checked luggage.
> In that case you are the first trying to solve a problem, thus creating a new market.
Critically: No, in business, it more often means that the market doesn't exist. If it did, you'd likely have competitors.
My point was just to note that this isn't unique to startups or VCs--it's common to all markets. It is generally a worrisome indicator if you have no competitors, and it is easier to justify chasing things other people are chasing.
I find this super interesting to watch being on the inside. There is some phenomenon where several people around the world come up with the same idea at the same time. There's even a term for this in scientific literature: Multiple Discovery: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_discovery
The theory of evolution, calculus, etc were "discovered" by multiple people with zero contact at the same time.
An event or change in the world (like airbnb here for example) trigger people to come to the same conclusion.
Now imagine you have a team of people working on it who are "just ok" - maybe they lack the product or engineering skills but still bring something to market. When the next team comes along that is truly stellar, they will out-execute.
With VC, it is really interesting. They may decide to invest in the team that is farthest along because they look like the leader in what is a new market. Or the stellar team may raise money and then the B team that started earlier and has more scale may go to investors and say "Look, this company raised money and we're way bigger - give us money too!" and they have a pretty good case for it at the surface level.
That is my take on how these things may happen and evolve.
I don't know if the interest is driven by AirBnB. But, for me, luggage storage (and corresponding access to a front desk all day) is a major feature of conventional hotels when I travel. Many times a year I either arrive in a city early or aren't leaving until the afternoon/evening and need somewhere to drop my bag. And, in a lot of places, there aren't really luggage storage options available other than your hotel, especially at convenient locations.
Japanese train stations are great for this. But it's very uncommon in many/most places.
Tokyo is a massive inspiration for Bounce. We hope to have that ubiquity someday and with an even better experience including your suggestion to know which areas have empty lockers.
And support for multiple languages!
When I went to japan, the occupancy of these lockers were often 100% -- people would be standing in line waiting for a locker to open up!
Bounce has a much higher bar for quality - for example, you may find a sketchy liquor store on other platforms but Bounce is much more focused on quality. Additionally, these other companies have been around for years. Come back to this thread in a year and we will see how things play out.
Do you feel that you'll be able offer competitive coverage with that quality bar?
I do like the idea that this is a solved problem, but if I'm in some tiny town, I still might need a service like this, and my go to service would have it covered.
I get that launching city by city makes sense at first, but just curious how this rolls out coverage wise!
Yes, we can maintain quality at deep scale. The market we can reach is insanely massive. Think of how big DoorDash, UberEats, etc is - they can tap into every restaurant. With Bounce, we can tap into every restaurant, hotel, coffee shop...any decent retail location.
It scales really nicely with coverage. We get daily requests from stores all around the world who want to sign up. We will catch up to the coverage of other companies this year or next year.
We offer $5000 insurance...absolute peace of mind!
> Come back to this thread in a year and we will see how things play out.
Just wanted to say: thank you for demonstrating a mature, no-nonsense approach. With the world drowning in hype, it's refreshing to see someone (anyone!) take the no-fluff route.
> It's been sparked by the raise of Airbnbs which rarely offer luggage storage.
Help me understand this. People go to an Airbnb, unpack their luggage, then take it (or have it picked up) for storage elsewhere? And when they are ready to go, they get it back and pack?
I'm basically a minimalist packer, so if this is what people actually do, it's very foreign to me.
If you arrive in town before your check-in time or have access to a property. Hotels handle this with a bag check. Same issue if you aren't headed out around the time your check out time.
Most hotels will happily store your luggage for you for a week or so too if you have little side-quests you don't want to take your full gear with you for.
isn't this solved "well enough" with a code-lock holding a key?
I've used it a few times and while it's low tech it seems pretty effective and costs about zero.
Yes! I went to Japan after starting Bounce and was really inspired. Everywhere you go, you know you can find a locker nearby. It's ubiquitous, reliable, inexpensive...can truly change how you get around a city.
Yeah London and Amsterdam stations have this too. The problem is only the bigger main stations have them. In Amsterdam this is actually a PITA as Centraal is right at the northern edge of the main city, so it's not actually as "central" as the name makes out... :D
In my experience, you can go to any random hotel bell desk and check your bag for the day for 1-2 units of the local currency. (You don't need to prove that you are checking in or out.)
I don't see paying bounce $6 and farfing around on a website for something that's so simple and quick to do in person and if there's a problem of any sort, I can readily sort it out on the spot instead of over some support-via-email system. (When bounce offers a non-hotel answer in a spot with no hotels nearby, I can see the value, but that seems like a corner case.)
Of course, I also didn't see people being willing to pay $10 to have unpredictably slow delivery of cold food from the likes of Doordash, either, so...
I'm usually staying in hotels and, to be honest, I've never tried to go into a random hotel and asked them to take my bag. So my alternative take is I'd probably rather pay $6 for a legit service than farfing around social engineering random hotels to store my bag for me.
Yes, this is how we describe it! Low enough price, and max reliability. The cost of getting turned away at a hotel because you're not a guest is probably worth $6, especially if you have places to go, people to see.
When I was visiting China last time I did not find the post office so I went into a hotel near the supposed location of the post office and just asked them if they could send my letters and so they did. Of course I payed for the stamps (including a tip).
Not just hotels, any small shop may be able to take care of it for you, provided you have enough charisma points. I've done this many times while traveling.
You answered your own question. Some of us don't have an ounce of charisma<del>, and some of us have been conditioned by years of loneliness to never initiate a conversation</del>. I think this is a pretty valuable service.
Not all hotels are convenient to where you want to be - if you are staying in Fisherman's Wharf for example and will be in Union Square before your flight, it doesn't make sense to go all the way back to FW to get your bags. Bounce has locations everywhere. It's also really popular with AirBnB folks, people going to games, concerts etc.
Bounce is an awesome idea! I've struggled to find good places to store luggage in the US, while I've generally managed to find something when I travel in Europe. If you use Airbnb exclusively, most hosts let you checkin in the afternoon. So you absolutely need to store luggage somewhere while you wait for your host.
Thanks Abhishek! We’ve focused exclusively on the US to date (72 cities covered). Will cover EU later this year. It’s a massive problem - we hope to create a world where you can open the Bounce app and instantly drop your bags around the corner. Here’s a discount code I made for HN...hope you can try it soon! THANKSHN
Have you ever reached out to the Airbnb host and asked them to store your luggage before check in? This is something that I think most hotels will allow.
I've had multiple Airbnb hosts have no problem with that. However, you can't really rely on it, and unlike a hotel, figuring out timing logistics for when they will be around to let you drop it off early can be tricky/more trouble than it's worth.
This would be incredibly useful in ski towns, when you're trying to get that last day of riding in but checked out of the hotel. I always skip it cause I'm afraid my car will get robbed.
I think there is because you don't always have a hotel in convenient spot. Not having to go back to your hotel might be added value.
Like you have to check out at noon but you have evening flight and you could drop your things somewhere in city center and take Uber to airport from there instead of going back to pick your stuff.
Well, we thought so as well when we initially entered the space. But if you're checking out near Fisherman's Wharf in SF and you want to spend the day in the mission, commuting back to your hotel to pick up your things become a lot less practical. The majority of users are Airbnb customers, but do see quite a few hotel guests use us as well
You're absolutely right. In Europe a lot of ski trips are done by travel agencies, with busses and housing in apartments. And you almost always have to check out at 10AM. So it mostly takes away a day on skis (which is awesome for the few that do make it out on the "travel days" )
In the US, there used to (~1980s) be plenty of storage
lockers at bus depots, train stations, and airports.
The gradual awareness in the US of the possibilities of terrorism
- UNABOM, the NI/IRA "Troubles", the 1993 WTC bombing, and
similar - gradually drove out most such anonymous-user
lockers, and after
9/11 they tended to be blocked off or removed more quickly,
even as people still had interest in cost-effective
short-term storage. Current arrangements seem to want
an existing relationship (overnight guest) or a paper
trail (ID + credit card).
Package storage in NTC vehicles allows the possibility
of having multiple devices being summoned to one or more
specific locations at specific times. What could possibly go wrong?
People need to go home sometimes. This would be pretty complicated dealing with issues like someone being late to get their stuff. At least a shop can say come back tomorrow.
Yeah it's a state persistence issue. Your worker literally times out and state is lost. So maybe a central repository (database) or hand-off to a new worker. Then there's the whole idea of security and trust.
Like I said, it's a dumb idea. Which is why I expect to see an SV startup try it.
I'm Cody's co-founder. That is literally the origin of Bounce. "Bounce" your things away from you and back to you when you need them again. As mentioned it obviously comes with a host of challenges that you don't have in the current decentralised and static model - but I do believe it's achievable. And it's definitely something we want to tackle long term!
I recently thought “Uber for Backpacks” would be a boon to the homeless. They could leave it in storage until requested back, as opposed to A-to-B transport. Natural partnership here. Economics of having a storage locker or large van were problematic, this could help. Realistically a homeless person would pay a few dollars for this regularly, as they can afford to buy a few coffees from cafes they spend time in. Not being ID’d as homeless would be dignifying.
Very interesting idea. I am sad to say that the stores on our platform aren't excited when someone who appears homeless (smelly or dirty clothes) wants to use Bounce.
It seems like a good idea... until the first terrorist leaves their suitcase bomb in Manhattan, mobster uses this to arrange drug mules or child trafficking, or shady business or their employees goes through bags looking for valuables.
Most people can simply mail their luggage to their hotel. Only a limited subset of travelers who use Airbnb or are homeless would need this service.
It seems like a better business model would be somewhere at the airport where you can pay someone to watch your luggage if you want to explore / go to dinner / etc. and know you're going to get everything back (like some sort of branded plastic-wrap "seal" with writing on it). Fewer locations needed and infinitely more customers. Of course, the downside is there's nothing to patent or can be protected in either business, it can be knocked-off ad infinitum.
Reasonable concerns but I don't think we offer anything inherently new for terrorists. They don't need our service to carry out attacks today. There are easier ways to leave a bomb, drugs, etc without your ID / payment info attached.
We've found quite a broad range of folks using us. We even have commuters who use us 5x / week - it's become a part of their lifestyle.
I sincerely hope they don't discriminate against the unhoused. This could be a game changer for folks who are used to putting together $20 per night for a shelter stay already (being homeless is very expensive, as I learned firsthand many years ago.)
We actually have had people use Bounce to avoid paying for a hotel and then they'd sleep in the park. This happened in NYC at least once that I know of.
Oops - meant to type this as a reply not as a new comment:
Not all hotels are convenient to where you want to be - if you are staying in Fisherman's Wharf for example and will be in Union Square before your flight, it doesn't make sense to go all the way back to FW to get your bags. Bounce has locations everywhere. It's also really popular with AirBnB folks, people going to games, concerts etc.
Have 10's of thousands of users already.
That’s what hotels do. It’s kind of a secret but basically every hotel lets you keep your luggage past checkout and pick it up later that day before you leave for the airport.
Another little known fact - your luggage isn’t insured when you do that. These guys all seem to offer insurance to protect what happens to your luggage
That's one of the reason I've been reluctant to do so, yeah. All of the hotels I've been to that do this have been painfully explicit about how they're not responsible for literally anything, and that there aren't even any cameras to investigate potential issues afterward.
That's a big fat "nope" from me. Which is likely their desire.
Yes! This, layovers where you leave the airport, when you're coming into a city and don't have time to drop off your stuff...the list goes on! We seriously hear the craziest stories of how people use Bounce.
Most hotels will store your luggage for you if your flight is after their checkout time, but it's pretty rare to find an Airbnb that will do the same. I used one of these services in Denver last week and it saved me from carrying around my bags for 5 hours.
Another possibility is if, after checkout, you want to hang out somewhere where it wouldn't be convenient to go back to your hotel to pick up your bags before heading to the airport.
I also don't get. In my experience, lggage shops are usually divided into higher end stores with carefully curated displays that won't want clutter or budget stores that have no room to move as it is.
And I won't want the risk of someone walking off with my bag.
Could OP explain.
Edit: Reading the FAQ, it's not luggage stores, it's stores that store luggage. Restaurants, delis, anywhere really. This makes much more sense.
I don't get it either. How is this different than a "left luggage" place?
A coupla' years ago, I landed at Heathrow, dropped off my luggage at the left luggage shop, travelled through Europe for two weeks, went back to Heathrow, picked up my luggage and flew back home.
Just google "left luggage near me" when you land somewhere. No need for an app that is most likely (not necessarily nefariously) tracking you.
I used a similar service in NYC in December. My partner and I were in the city for a half day. We got into the Port Authority around noon and dropped our bags at a Best Western near Penn Station. It allowed us to spend a day visiting with friends without the need to lug the luggage around. During the day we walked about 6 miles. Three bags ran about $20, it was well worth it.
Awesome to hear it worked out so well. Any feedback to make it better? At Bounce, we've worked really hard to create a beautiful, easy to use product, and a lot of locations to go with it. We now have the most in NYC. Can I convince you to try Bounce next time? Here's a discount code I just made for this threat: THANKSHN (10% off)
The hard part about this model is that I might only need this service once a year or less. If this service did not exist I would just try the tip the bellhop option.
I think that often you can have a period of time between checkout from hotel (example 1000 hours) and flight home (1800 hours) where you have perhaps a half day where you can do something but have luggage with you. This service makes so much sense.
How do you protect the customer in the case that somehting inside the luggage get lost? Or what if they claim that they lost something, but it just bs and want to rip off the store owner/your platform?
Looks neat but would be great if you expanded internationally. We're in the Philippines and going to South Korea in a couple of months and there's no options in either country.
Being a marketplace, how did you manage to get the suppliers (shops) to signup before having buyers in place? Then how did you got buyers (people wanting to leave luggage) to roll in starting with a specific launch date?
We have some really great stories here. When we were first testing the model, we had a phone number on our site that said you could store your stuff in locations all around the city. Someone called and asked for a location in the Upper East Side. I said we have some spots scheduled to open there next month but let me see if they can open earlier. Can I call you back in 30 minutes? Then I called stores in that area until I found one that said yes. Then I'd connect the dots, onboard them to our platform, and off we'd go. That's how we got many of our first locations.
I’m a professional Airbnb host in Columbus and know some big hosts - 20+ properties. Any way I can help bring this to Columbus? I run into the storage issue every few days
We've built a far better product (judge for yourself - usebounce.com), and have a much higher quality bar for locations. This work comes through in numbers: Bounce has maintained a 4.9/5 star rating across all our customers. The company you mention has a 1.9.
This other company has far more reach however...they definitely beat us there. We hope to close that gap in the next year.
:-) Happy to read this, but Don’t use trustpilot as a bible, it is always a marketing strategy if you don’t have an official account with them :-)
By the way we love workings with numbers @bounce.
BAGBNB
1.5 mln bags stored
+2,500 luggage storage places all over the world
300 cities
Is a blue ocean
Good luck to all of us
Ciao
BAGBNB
There's many different ones, for the most part it seems particular ones dominate particular cities/countries. I guess it takes a bit of time to build up the relationships and credibility.
We do a few things to keep it risk free for store owners. For one, we are the ones providing insurance, so they're never the target of a claim. Besides that, we allow store partners the right to refuse service - or ask to inquire about what's being stored. None of our locations have ever had to do that, but it takes care of the scenario where a store partner fears people are storing something illicit.
I have used a similar service in Spain when my hotel was a little too distant from the train station to make and end of day return trip feasible. Worked well, good idea.
There is a vibrant mini-economy for this along the Camino de Santiago in Spain. Both day storage and transporting short distances. They’re very efficient!
It is actually really cool to see all the local mom&pop options in each city. For storage and for delivery. We work with all the shops who are willing (and will uphold our high quality bar).
A Google search while in Pamplona, I think. There are more than a couple of these startups, mostly using hostels for the storage as far as we could tell.
I don't remember how I discovered it but I used Bounce last June in NYC. Very easy to use and cheap. It was very convenient on my last day in the city.
I find that if you go to a high-end hotel and tell them you're not checking in until tomorrow but would like them to hang onto your luggage for the day until you meet a friend that you're staying with tonight, they'll do it for you. Given the low cost to them, doesn't make sense to try to check your story at the risk of upsetting an actual guest.
Depends on the hotel... many bigger hotels have dedicated bag check rooms. Last time I was a conference in New York, I was going to hang out for a while before heading to New York.
The bag check room at the hotel had a line, and there was a set fee per bag to store it there. There were hundreds of bags in the room, so not exactly low cost to accept and track all of them. Makes sense they charged.
Store owners have the right to reject customers and to ask what's being stored upon deposit. This has alleviated this problem and this concern with stores. These guys on the ground know what they're doing.
It's actually a more legitimate service I think than the likes of uber, as it is anciliary service for more income for small shops (we also bought 'candy' when in the store - a bit more revenue for them), as opposed to people relying on it to make a living.