Head2Pillow.com launches short-term room rental service for affordable rooms in the London area. Homeowners with a spare room can make tax-free money quickly and easily.

LONDON, ENGLAND December 09, 2010

The service is part of a rise in homeowners taking in lodgers, in part, as a result of the recession. According to a recent survey by Halifax Home Insurance, the figure has risen by around 25% over the last four years to almost 970,000. In addition, with the London Olympics looming in 2012, with tickets going on sale next March, accommodation will be in short supply.

Head2Pillow.com is the brain child of Frances Westaway, a former pre-school administrator and mother of three, in response to expensive hotel rooms in the capital, "The idea started amongst a group of friends who would occasionally lend out rooms for short stays and guests would often just buy them a gift to say thank you."

But with an estimated 700,000 vacant rooms in the capital alone, Westaway decided to look at the potential for a more formal service for short-term rental which would better manage the process. "We looked at several similar sites but they didn't provide confidence around payment and were difficult to use." Westaway explains, "Many of these sites were very basic and had limited search or online booking features."
Head2Pillow.com is an online service that allows homeowners to advertise a spare room quickly and provides simple booking and guaranteed payment. For people looking for a room for a short stay, Head2Pillow.com provides an easy to use interface to quickly search for and book a room online with payments processed using Barclaycard's secure transaction system.

"There is particularly strong demand for rooms around seasonal events such as Wimbledon and the Boat Race," comments Westaway highlighting budget hotel chains that routinely triple room rates to over GBP160 per night during these periods. "With Head2Pillow, a spare room equals cash in your pocket!"

The service has been backed by a number of angel investors and fills a niche in the market, "Having a service supported by real people makes Head2Pillow pretty unique. As we expand, the feedback system will help to ensure that good homeowners and guests start to build an affinity and turn the service into a real community."
"Sharing schemes are really becoming popular as social networking starts to become the norm" comments Westaway, "and our plan is to expand Head2Pillow to other major cities over the next 18 months."

Head2Pillow.com encourages homeowners to take advantage of the Government Rent-a-Room scheme (http://www.direct.gov.uk/) which enables homeowners to earn up to GBP4,250 a year tax-free from their spare room. The website is also preparing for the forthcoming Olympics which will see an estimated 4 million extra guests visiting London over the summer of 2012.

Room rates are entirely set by homeowners and the service generates revenue from taking a small percentage of each transaction. As part of the promotional activities around the launch, Head2Pillow is offering free membership for homeowners and a competition to win GBP50 of Amazon Vouchers.

For more information on the service, please visit http://www.head2pillow.com/