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Two Degrees is a free platform that lets people do what they have always done – share their spaces within their trusted personal network. Our platform enables the discovery, coordination and use of available accommodations with people you know, and with people that they know and trust directly (friends of friends). It is built around two roles: Hosts and Travelers.  Hosts post their spaces on the platform and control who sees their listing, who books it, and how they use their accommodations.  Travelers use the platform to find and use accommodations offered by hosts within their network. Everyone who joins Two Degrees is a Traveler with access to the destinations within their unique Two Degrees network of friends, family and friends of friends.

Any member of Two Degrees can become a Host, simply by listing a property that you own, rent or are otherwise responsible for, and making that available to your direct connections or to friends of friends, depending upon your preference.  

Everyone in Two Degrees can be a Traveler, simply by booking a Stay with a Host and actually going to visit with them in real life.  This is a fancy way of doing what everyone has done at one point or another – stayed overnight with family or friends.

As a Host, you can not only coordinate and manage your stays from your friends and family, including when they are arriving and when they are departing, but you can also set expectations about staying at your place that might otherwise be awkward to bring up in conversation (Maximum duration of stay, Pets/Kids allowed, relatively level of cleanliness, your availability to spend time during the visit, etc.)

As a Traveler, there are many reasons to visit with friends and family – building deeper connections, exploring new areas, etc.  The benefits of traveling with Two Degrees is that you know that the offers to stay are genuine from the Host, you can easily check availability, the expectations of staying at a particular place are much clearer and you can discover new places through friends of friend sharing that you never knew existed.

There’s a great write-up on that very thing here, but in essence, as the site is about trusted sharing and we believe that direct connection is critical to building trust, the Two Degrees represents the greatest degree of separation between individuals on the site where Trust can still be expected (friends of friends, where trust is centered on a common connection).

A profile picture and user name for each member of Two Degrees is visible to all other members.  If you select the option to make your profile private in the Account Settings, then that is all anyone that isn’t a direct connection of yours will see.  If you opt to leave that unchecked, then the profile information that you provide will be visible to Two Degrees members, much as it would on social media sites.

There is no membership fee to join Two Degrees. The site is completely free to use for Hosts and Travelers alike.  As for booking a stay with a friend or family member, there are no Two Degrees fees for that either.  

With that said, Travelers/Guests should be looking for ways to reduce the economic impact of their visit on their Hosts.  Some hosts will provide guidance on how best to do that or may even suggest what they might feel is reasonable compensation. But that never goes through the site and is completely up to the participants to come to an understanding that works for everyone.

The company is currently privately funded by the founders and will be expanding the investor base in the coming months.  Ultimately, the company will generate revenue to support this service through the offering of tours, attractions and event ticket sales, much like you see in paid sites like AirBnb and vrbo.  We believe that by providing unique opportunities to both Hosts and Travelers, we can encourage more engaging visits together while providing a means to fund the company on a long-term basis.

Yes!  Two Degrees has settings so you can always be in control of the visibility and use of your property.  Visibility is controlled at the property level, where you can have it available to just your direct connections (Friends) or you can expanded it to your Two Degrees network (Friends of Friends).  But no matter who has visibility, no Stay request is automatic, so as the Host, you are required to confirm or deny each request.  So, if you forget to update your calendar or simply “aren’t feeling it” with a particular stay, you have the ability to deny the request and suggest an alternative if you’d like.

Absolutely!  Visibility is controlled at the property level, so you can make each property visible differently (to different audiences, on different calendars, etc.)  You can even hide a property if you no longer want to have it visible at all!  As the Host, you have complete control over who sees and stays in your place.