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Local startup connecting owners of unique spaces to people opens the door to a new kind of short-term venue rental opportunity.
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KUALA LUMPUR, 29 JUNE 2020 – Chupspace, a homegrown online marketplace that allows people to discover and book unique spaces for short-term rental, is poised to be a game changer for the real estate market.
Chupspace allows people to rent unique spaces on an hourly basis for a myriad of activities from birthday parties to seminars to film shoots. The online marketplace currently serves five areas including Kuala Lumpur, Petaling Jaya, Shah Alam, Penang and Johor Bahru. With a mission to bring previously unavailable spaces to new users, Chupspace aims to provide a solution for individuals and small business owners to maximise the use of its spaces by providing access to these spaces for people to use during off peak hours, which creates rental opportunities for the space owners. These spaces can be used for various reasons including weddings, video shoots, product launches and media events. Some of the unique spaces include abandoned warehouses, barns, meeting rooms in offices, national stadiums, art studios and galleries, and heritage landscapes.
“We identified that traditional venue leasing or rental came with too many strings attached – contracts, long term commitments, costly insurance packages, geographical restrictions – whereas commercial venues aren’t always a feasible option due to its high cost structure. This led us to identify a gap in the market for affordable and readily available spaces to rent. Soon, we discovered that both individuals and small business owners with unused spaces outside of their normal business operation hours have the potential to be leased out, thus creating value in underutilised real estate,” said Justin Tai, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Chupspace. “Take office spaces which are mainly used from Monday to Friday, 9 am until 5 pm, bars and clubs which operate from 4 pm until 4 am or wedding halls which are mostly empty on weekdays. These spaces are largely left underutilised outside of its operational hours, which provides opportunities to rent out these spaces during those latent hours and provide an additional income stream for the owners. This then helps these venues to cover the cost of their own rent. An important driver for us is to create a solution that solves an ongoing problem and benefits both the venue owners and potential renters,” added Justin.
Justin Tai, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Chupspace.
Unlike conventional event spaces that promote packages such as ballrooms, coworking spaces and restaurants, Chupspace’s key differentiating factor is its listings of idle spaces which can be utilised during off peak hours. This creates an additional income stream and increased visibility among the community of spaces for venue owners. With the option to rent on an hourly basis, potential renters are provided flexibility to utilise spaces at more affordable rates.
“Since launching in September 2019, we passed the 100 bookings mark in just three months. To date, we have over 200 listings and counting. At Chupspace, it is our vision to help people discover new and unique spaces which in turn will facilitate the creation of new ideas. Our business model is geared to serve the evolving demands of both venue owners and potential renters today. Therefore, we continue to seek and develop partnerships with owners of distinctive spaces to understand the market, identify their pain points and fine tune our offering. Since we started, we’ve gone through three accelerator programs – Selangor Accelerator Programme, NEXEA Startup Accelerator Program and Cradle’s Coach and Grow Programme – where we’ve been able to receive the mentorship and guidance needed to take our business to the next level. For the time being, our focus will be on two things – building relationships with owners of distinctive spaces who understand the real estate market and gain in-depth knowledge of what people seek in terms of experiences with unique spaces. This will then lead us to create the value needed to push our business forward,” continued Justin.
Justin Tai, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Chupspace.
Unlike conventional event spaces that promote packages such as ballrooms, coworking spaces and restaurants, Chupspace’s key differentiating factor is its listings of idle spaces which can be utilised during off peak hours. This creates an additional income stream and increased visibility among the community of spaces for venue owners. With the option to rent on an hourly basis, potential renters are provided flexibility to utilise spaces at more affordable rates.
“Since launching in September 2019, we passed the 100 bookings mark in just three months. To date, we have over 200 listings and counting. At Chupspace, it is our vision to help people discover new and unique spaces which in turn will facilitate the creation of new ideas. Our business model is geared to serve the evolving demands of both venue owners and potential renters today. Therefore, we continue to seek and develop partnerships with owners of distinctive spaces to understand the market, identify their pain points and fine tune our offering. Since we started, we’ve gone through three accelerator programs – Selangor Accelerator Programme, NEXEA Startup Accelerator Program and Cradle’s Coach and Grow Programme – where we’ve been able to receive the mentorship and guidance needed to take our business to the next level. For the time being, our focus will be on two things – building relationships with owners of distinctive spaces who understand the real estate market and gain in-depth knowledge of what people seek in terms of experiences with unique spaces. This will then lead us to create the value needed to push our business forward,” continued Justin.
Justin Tai, Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Chupspace.
In a move to address the Covid19 pandemic and subsequent Movement Control Order (MCO) instated by the Malaysian government, Chupspace recently introduced venue listings of businesses looking to share its office space. As companies look to adopt a more flexible work arrangement for its employees, this has resulted in many opting to work from home which leaves companies with idle office space that is not being fully utilised whilst still maintaining the same overhead costs.
“In lieu of the MCO period, many businesses have since had to exit the market or significantly downsize its operations. Both scenarios have caused an abundance of space that’s been left empty in the market. We see this as a gap that we can fill by matching idle office space with people looking to rent space at a more affordable rate with the flexibility to opt out when needed. This gives businesses the option to list their spaces on our platform which we hope can be able to relieve their financial obligations. Due to the concerns of the community, we’re working closely with all our venue partners to ensure that they have the necessary health and safety guidelines in place for their respective venues,” added Justin.
For more information, book a venue or list a unique space, visit Chupspace’s website at https://chupspace.com/.
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