ThisOpenSpace

What: ThisOpen Space allows you to rent your space (house/apartment/office/barn/etc) by the day, week, month or hour

Commissions & fees: 10% – 15%

Husl$core: $$$$

Expected pay: $50 or more per hour

Requirements: Be able to sign a legally-binding contract and have a space that can work as a venue for private events ranging from birthday parties to pop-up shops. You are also required to maintain any licenses, such as city or county business licenses, needed to rent out your space. 

Where: New York, Los Angeles, Toronto, Vancouver, Ottawa and Montreal

Review: Like Peerspace and Splacer, This Open Space allows you to list your real estate as a venue for events that are as diverse as movie sets and photography to corporate events and pop-up stores. You set your price and decide what type of events you’re willing to host and when.

The site handles bookings and collects payment, taking a fee ranging from 10% to 15% in exchange for the service. Hosts are paid four weeks after This Open Space collects payment, or before the event date, whichever comes first. However, payments are only made when you’re due $100 or more. If you’re owed less, the site will hold your payment until it hits the $100 threshold. The potentially lower fee (Peerspace and Splacer charge 15%) is one of two ways This Open Space hopes to differentiate itself from its competitors. The other is that it offers $2 million in liability insurance vs. the $1 million policies offered by the others. 

As for cancellations, This Open Space has the toughest policy yet. If a host cancels, he/she must refund 100% of the booking cost to the guest, pay a $150 cancellation fee, and may have a hold placed on future payouts to recover any costs incurred by the cancellation. The only time these fees would be waived is if the host can prove that the venue has suffered some damage that would make hosting the event unsafe. Even then, any cancellation can trigger a review of your account and get you booted from the platform. The site has an equally tough policy on guest cancellations, which appears to allow hosts to keep payments if the guest cancels within 7 days of the event or a month after booking. 

This Open Space currently operates in just two U.S. cities and has relatively few homes in its database. This may mean that fewer renters will be looking for your space on this site. We’re also a little concerned that the cancelation policy leaves little room for emergencies.

That said, it appears to be an excellent money-making option for people with the right space, if you’re confident you won’t need to cancel. Notably, there’s nothing preventing you from signing up with multiple rent-by-the-hour platforms. Also check out Peerspace, Avvay, Splacer and Giggster.

What their users say: 

We are actively seeking host reviews. If you’ve rented a venue through them, please contact us and let us know how it went.

Try ThisOpenSpace