Entrepreneurs / Small Business  August 15, 2016

Lyons couple launches marketplace for off-the-grid vacation rentals

LYONS – A Lyons couple has launched a new vacation-rental website aimed at connecting with those who wish to disconnect.

FreeHouse is an Airbnb-style site focused on remote vacation properties that are “off the grid,” self-sustaining and disconnected from the electricity grid and, often, from internet and phone access as well. Accommodations range from ski huts to yurts to mountain cabins, each with varying degrees of accessibility and comfort.

Sarah and Jason Stillman founded FreeHouse last year and launched the site in June of this year. Much of their inspiration came from their own enjoyment of staying at the Colorado 10th Mountain Division ski huts in Colorado’s backcountry. Scoring reservations for such huts, which are run by a nonprofit organization, is often difficult due to demand. So the Stillmans set out to find similar accommodations that are privately owned and list them in one place for adventure-seekers or professionals seeking refuge from the 24-7 deluge of email and other demands.

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FreeHouse features about 40 listings so far, with most in Colorado and a few in New Mexico. But Sarah Stillman said Monday that the company hopes to quickly branch out to much of the northwestern United States, as well as Canada, California and the Northeast.

Many of the current listings also appear on sites like Airbnb and VRBO. But Stillman said those can often get lost among the thousands of offerings geared toward less rugged accommodations. FreeHouse, she said, helps those property owners get in front of a more targeted clientele.

“It definitely takes the right kind of person to want to go to a backcountry cabin,” Stillman said.

Stillman said some of the rentals on FreeHouse are quite luxurious, and vacationers can filter their searches based on which amenities they do or don’t want, or by what level of remoteness they’re seeking. But all must be off the grid. Stillman said she and her husband screen every listing to ensure it meets that criteria.

“We have to make sure that it’s the right fit,” Stillman said.

Stillman is an acupuncturist in Boulder and Lyons, and her husband is a graphic designer who runs his own marketing business. They’re the only FreeHouse employees so far. The couple has funded the company themselves along with some friends and family investment, and Stillman said there is no intent to raise any outside funding at this time.

“We kind of want to get the ball rolling and see how we do,” she said.

LYONS – A Lyons couple has launched a new vacation-rental website aimed at connecting with those who wish to disconnect.

FreeHouse is an Airbnb-style site focused on remote vacation properties that are “off the grid,” self-sustaining and disconnected from the electricity grid and, often, from internet and phone access as well. Accommodations range from ski huts to yurts to mountain cabins, each with varying degrees of accessibility and comfort.

Sarah and Jason Stillman founded FreeHouse last year and launched the site in June of this year. Much of their inspiration came from their own enjoyment…

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