I recently had the opportunity to interact on Twitter with Andrew MacDonald, one of the founders of The Rentables, after he participated in my Su.pr Beta blog experiment. Andrew let me know about this innovative startup and the possibility of reviewing the website and its many features. Here’s the review!

The Idea

TheRentables.com launched just recently and was created by a group of young renters who were fed up with the frustrations faced when trying to find an apartment or home for rent in any given geographic area. Not only do similar websites make users jump through hoops just to get a search started, i.e. creating a username, entering a bunch of info, and then dealing with an awkwardly complex interface, but most rental listing websites don’t take the very important final step of ensuring (as best as possible) that all properties listed for rent are actually available. Who wants to deal with following up on a place that is already rented? And what landlord wants to keep receiving calls for a property that is already rented out?

The Rentables team has developed a different approach by providing relevant, accurate, comprehensive, and most importantly, timely data on available rentals. Put simply, by their tagline, “Filter, Compare, Rent.”

Here’s a key feature rundown, as provided by Andrew, for TheRentables.com website:

• Real-time listings, based on actual availability status
• Google Mapping and Street View integration (all listings show actual address!)
• Image hosting and display for up to 4 photos of your property
• Filters that allow users to quickly find what they’re actually interested in
• Side-by-side comparison tool to make selecting the right property easy
• No registration, usernames, logins or passwords to slow users down

Design and Functionality

Upon arriving at TheRentables.com, visitors are greeted with a Google-esque style search interface. Simple, clean, and self-explanatory. Enter a location (e.g. Boston, MA) and click Go!

The actual presentation of data for the requested area brings the first task of “Filter” to the forefront. An integration of Google’s Map API provides for a great way to interact with locations via a few simple click and drag moves, while the left sidebar allows for narrowing results very quickly.

Each step is clearly marked numerically, providing a sort of road map for new users to follow. Once basic navigation and exploring is complete, the ability to mark “favorites” becomes a welcomed feature…as going through listings multiple times would be too tedious, even if the site is quick and simple to use.

When viewing an individual listing, an amazing integration of Google’s Streetview technology will quickly grab anyone’s attention. This one feature is what really made an impression on my first visit to The Rentables. I’ve had the chance to communicate via email with Schien Dong, who worked with the Google API to provide this feature for the website. He definitely has a passion for different types of API integration, geo-related applications, and, as he puts it, the enjoyment of “automating everything in my life” — he is also well on his way to developing a prototype web application to keep track of his current position using Skyhook and Twitter.

Each individual listing mini-page provides property information, owner contact info (along with quick-contact messaging) and even allows for sharing the rental with friends using the most common social networking websites. I did encounter a problem with the photo gallery portion of the listing, while using FireFox, where thumbnail photos would not replace the current enlarged photo. What is a startup without minor technical issues?

Upon finding a couple (or more) listings that fit your needs, TheRentables.com provides an outstanding side-by-side comparison tool to really allow for an easier decision-making process to take place. It is easy to quickly compare price, deposit requirements, and even whether or not pets are allowed. This all takes place in a newly-opened window, so it is simple to return to searching.

A brand new feature, just added prior to this review, was introduced allowing users to create Custom RSS feeds to see any new units posted. The RSS feed can be subscribed to with any reader, showing any new units matching defined search criteria (including map area). You can read more about this powerful feature at TheRentables.com blog.

Monetization and Expansion

For any new website startup, two of the most important factors come down to the ability to monetize (make actual money) and whether the concept is scalable or can otherwise easily expand to other geographic areas. Fortunately, based on my own experiences with these two tasks, it looks like TheRentables.com team is well on their way to accomplishing both.

In a quick Q&A, I asked Andrew about just how The Rentables would achieve proper monetization. His response was structured into the following three main components:

1. Charging a nominal fee for “featured” rental listings. According to Andrew, this component is already gaining ground with users in the Boston area and will continue to gain momentum as additional listings are added — as it will become more important for users to have their listings stand out among the crowd. This feature is currently priced at $10 per week, per listing.

2. Recurring revenue model with multiple-property managers. Property managers that are constantly tasked with listing new rentals can utilize a back-end system for The Rentables. Developed to allow for listings to be “stored” and ready-to-list with just 1-click. My experience as a Realtor® tells me this will be a great money-maker, as most property managers are experts in adopting new technology and streamlining processes of all kinds. At this time, storing rental unit listings is free and listings will be charged on a per-day basis, upon activation by the user.

3. Geo-targeted, relevant local business advertising. Since TheRentables.com already utilizes the Google Map API to plot listings, implementing localized PPC or display advertising makes perfect sense. According to Andrew, this concept “is just an idea at this point” and would aim to provide ads in a “non-obtrusive manner which may actually add more value for tenants browsing listings.”

On the expansion front, The Rentables Blog posted the following on July 9th 2009:

After beta testing our service in the Boston area, we expanded to cover New England. We’ve now stepped it up and gone national.

The Rentables now has listings all over the East Coast from New England to the Florida Keys. We’ve also launched our service on the West Coast and currently listing rentals in Washington state, Oregon, and California.

This is very good news, as it shows the website is on the move and will hopefully continue to expand at a steady-fast pace. Andrew has also mentioned a decision to pick up the expansion pace even more. On a side note, I’m also excited they heard my suggestion to add a RSS feed for their company blog, as I use Google Reader about 90%+ of the time. Now I just have to convince Andrew about the importance of having an actual RSS button in plain sight, as well.

Overall

As most of you know, my own company, AdsNational, deals primarily with online advertising and marketing, so I was happy to hear about integration of local business advertising. TheRentables.com team should definitely hash out an action plan for advertising integration as user volume increases in specific areas. Perhaps use a saturation model to determine when and how to throw a switch to start generating advertising revenues, as soon as a geographic area reaches a certain number of listings and/or users.

In addition, it is going to be imperative for The Rentables to expand out beyond the East Coast, which should take place rapidly after completing any additional tweaking and beta testing. I myself live in the San Francisco Bay Area and personally know people who are also frustrated with the lack of a quick, simple, and innovative rental search website. TheRentables.com will have to not only depend on gaining exposure from local partnerships, social media (including blog posts/reviews like this one), and local advertising, but will have to reach out to larger project management firms, Realtor®/MLS associations, and work with advertising companies to create online advertising campaigns — on a local and national level — to really achieve scale.

As with any startup, as long as revenue is greater than burn rate, persistence and patience is key to building a strong team, developing strategies, and continuing to innovate.

I look forward to watching TheRentables.com grow and the team succeed.