Make yourself at home

An apartment in Parliament View

For a year now, London has been in the grip of an Olympics-driven hotel boom. Lavish new openings have vied for attention with multi-million-pound refurbishments, while quirky boutique hotels have popped up to fill every conceivable niche, from high-tech to high camp. The new Corinthia has suites with private lifts; the Savoy is swinging again after a £200m facelift; the W boasts mirror-balls and celebrities; the Zetter Townhouse offers antique cocktails and a stuffed cat in a crinoline. But away from all the noise and excitement, what might turn out to be the city’s most important hotel innovation has been going on behind the scenes, largely unnoticed.

I am sitting at a large wooden table beneath an extravagant spray of gladioli and agapanthus, in front of two tall sash windows, feeling more at home than in any hotel I’ve ever visited. I’m surrounded by unusual objets d’art (including a 5ft-long AK-47 made from glass), there are three bedrooms upstairs and a beautiful bathroom. There is a balcony and a kitchen, and all for a total of £175 a night. I’m a ten-minute train ride from the Olympic stadium, there is a choice of fashionable bars nearby, and, best of all, I have my own front door.

For this isn’t a hotel at all, but someone’s house. I’m in north London, testing the services of One Fine Stay, a new home-rental service, albeit a unique one. Perhaps because of the economic climate, home rentals, house-swaps and homestays have seen a surge of interest in recent months and the web-based companies that facilitate them have attracted a rush of investment. US-based Airbnb was valued at $1.3bn in July, after just three years in operation; in June its German competitor Wimdu announced it had secured investment of $90m, only three months after it launched.

At first sight One Fine Stay seems to share much with these companies. It was set up in 2009 by three friends with a background in venture capital and Silicon Valley start-ups, plus a long list of degrees and Fulbright scholarships from Cambridge University and Harvard Business School. There is a slick website and lots of clever back-office technology (one of the founders turned down an “extremely well-paid” position at Facebook). But unlike Airbnb and its competitors, which are essentially online marketplaces that simply connect homeowners with home-renters, One Fine Stay is a far more “real world” operation.

Before every stay, the company’s staff visit the house and give it a makeover so that it becomes halfway between a hotel and a private home. The property is cleaned, fresh flowers and a basic food parcel are delivered, and all clutter is cleared away (usually into one designated room and specific cupboards that are then sealed with a red tamper-proof sticker). The bed linen is replaced with hotel-standard sheets, duvets and fluffy white towels (the staff roster includes a former director of housekeeping for Four Seasons). Bathrooms are equipped with soaps, shampoos and lotions from the White Company, along with all the shoe-shine, showercaps and needlework kits you’d expect to find (but never use) in a five-star hotel.

“It is a delicate balance, a very difficult judgment – you don’t want to denude the house of personality because that is what gives it its character,” says Greg Marsh, one of the co-founders. Guest feedback has led to the conclusion that different parts of the house should be anonymised to differing degrees. Bathrooms and the areas immediately around the beds are ruthlessly stripped of all traces of the house’s real residents but living rooms and kitchens are allowed to display more of the owner’s taste. “With bathrooms you have to feel almost like you are the first person using them,” says Marsh. “But in the sitting rooms it’s more important that it feels homely and welcoming.”

Beresford Terrace, Canonbury

As I nose around Beresford Terrace in Canonbury, it is hard not to relish the Through the Keyhole element – who would live in a house like this? There’s something fascinating about other people’s choice of books, music and DVDs, not to mention their crockery (a range of Moomins coffee cups hangs in the kitchen). There’s a bohemian element to this house; a bare plastered wall in the lounge; a row of wooden seats salvaged from a theatre; an old guitar waiting to be played; a porcelain puppy acting as a doorstop. It’s the kind of attention to detail that even the most conscientious hotel in the world could never match.

Some things upset Marsh’s delicate balance, however. I feel odd looking at the wall calendar in the kitchen showing what the house’s real residents would be doing in the coming week. Worse, a half-finished bottle of red wine has been left out on top of the fridge but sealed with one of the red stickers. I begin to feel like Goldilocks.

Thankfully there is far more to put guests at ease than on edge. Waiting on the kitchen table is an iPhone, on which guests can make free local calls, talk to the 24-hour remote concierge, or order “room service” (delivered by takeaway company Deliverance and added to your final bill). Also on the iPhone is an app offering recommendations for local shops, bars, restaurants and entertainment, as well as maps to help you get there.

Guests are met by a member of staff who gives a tour of the house, explains the “no shoes inside” rule, and crucially, from the homeowner’s perspective, checks the passport and credit card of the renter. Marsh argues this, and comprehensive insurance, removes the risk of owners returning to find their houses trashed, as happened to one Airbnb member earlier this year, throwing that company into “crisis”.

A Victorian home in Cromwell Avenue

Already One Fine Stay has 40 staff and 150 properties on its books, ranging from a pied-à-terre in Marylebone for £130 a night to a palatial apartment overlooking Hyde Park for £2,000. Marsh says the firm is taking on between five and 10 properties a week, relying on word of mouth recommendations between homeowners.

“The satisfaction you get from coming home from a holiday that’s been almost entirely paid for by your house is probably enough to keep a dinner party entertained for many minutes on end,” he says. The firm usually insists that a property is available for a minimum of four weeks a year; owners fill in an online calendar of when they will be away.

Of course next year’s Olympics offers a huge potential for the company, not least because many hotels are already fully booked, but Marsh’s ambitions stretch well beyond London, with New York being discussed as the probable next city.

There is no gym, no spa and no all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet but, as I linger over a second pot of morning coffee in the quiet open-plan kitchen, I don’t miss them. Staying here has been far more relaxing and interesting than staying in a hotel.

But above all, it is the location that sets the experience apart. Some of the houses are right in the city centre but many are further out, in Notting Hill, Islington, Kennington, Wimbledon, Primrose Hill and so on. In other words, the communities in which Londoners actually live and socialise, rather than the tourist ghettos of the West End. Glitterballs, private lifts and antique cocktails might be fun but how much more compelling is the chance to step into the shoes of a local?

www.onefinestay.com

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Planning to rent in London for the Olympics or Paralympics? Ensure you are near the venue hosting your favourite sport with the FT’s games guides:

Olympic venues: which event, when

Paralympic venues: which event, when

London 2012 Olympics: which event, when, where

London 2012 Paralympics: which event, when, where