I came across stasher, while watching the BBC Travel Show and instantly went WOW, what a great idea.
So what does stasher do?
Simply put, you can book a place to store you luggage through their app or website. Just like AirBnB for accommodation there are people / merchants (unorganised sector) who would store your luggage for a fee.
So what’s great?
Let me share a couple of experiences, which am sure you might have gone through as well.
These experiences are purely based on the fact that travel accommodation isn’t that flexible at most places. We have to check-in mostly after 12 noon – 2 pm and checkout before 11 am, whether be it at a hotel / commercial place or even at AirBnB.
So, when on a vacation either you have to plan your entire trip based on the check-in / check-out times or request the hotel to hold on to your luggage till you return later since you have the entire day still available before you board you return leg. This again means you need plan the day well enough to return to the hotel to collect your bag to head to the airport or the station and if you have chosen a hotel that is a bit far away from the end point, then this eats into your time. And am not sure if AirBnB hosts agree to hold your luggage and even if yes, the above problem continues.
With Stasher, I can choose a place, most convenient to me, drop my luggage off, finish my sightseeing, return to that place and move on. As an example, I could choose a shop that sells curios on the road, next to an underground station, leave my bag there and go around visiting a nearby museum or the city center etc.
Or if you are backpacking or have slightly bigger suitcase that doesn’t fit into the lockers at a railways station, stasher point's provide the best alternative. Pretty cool isn’t it? That’s why I think the idea is kickass.
Another example is when you are on work. In most cases we would check-out early in the morning and carry our cases to work. What if you had multiple meeting during the day and have to catch a late night flight. I have been in this situation and it’s irritating to carry your suitcase everywhere. Or even the reverse where you have to carry the suitcase everywhere before you check-in to your hotel late in the evening. But if you were able to leave your luggage at a convenient point, only for you to easily retrieve it while heading to the airport / hotel, would make life really simple isn’t it.
That’s why I feel the Stasher idea is brilliant.
Actually if you look at, its just replicating the AirBnB idea at a high level for luggage storage but the implementation of giving street merchants the option to store luggage to earn a few extra bucks thus making my life (the traveller) easy is super cool. In fact they are even asking hotels to sign up for this and I believe this could be a good source of income for them as well, as probably people might trust them more than a vendor on the road. I wouldn't even ming paying a small premium for this or what if hotels evolve their loyalty program by allowing you to use your points to store luggage in a hotel that you are not staying in that visit.
Like any startup, its still early days, but they are certainly solving a big pain point for travellers and I certainly will have a keen eye on them to see how more they disrupt this space.
Go ahead and explore Stasher if you have questions around safety, insurance etc.