Accommodation while traveling is being redefined. A new wave of passionate travelers is emerging and opting for a more familiar and homely feel when going on vacation – home exchange! Home-swappers get to enjoy the thrill of a new city without sacrificing the comfort of a home. The co-founders at Knok caught up to this trend and were confident they could create a technically advanced, social and user-friendly platform for travelers who wanted to exchange their homes with people from around the globe.
Curious about their experience, we reached out to the founders of this exciting start up. Co-founder Laura Martínez kindly agreed to give us the skinny on what Knok is all about.
Let’s take a peek at what it’s like to work at Knok!
What is Knok and who does it target?
Knok is an online home exchange community that offers flat rate accommodation to travel around the world by swapping your home. The community has over 30,000 members in 159 countries all over the world and is setting a new standard for the global home exchange experience
Why did you decide to create Knok?
We were home exchange users for many years and during our travels we found the existing websites to have a great deal of problems. We saw a real business opportunity there, we thought we could fix their problems and offer a better solution, thus Knok came to be.
What are your expectations for the future?
We want to offer this service to thousands of travelers around the world, and make home swapping the third option in the travel accommodation market.
Knok Works in many countries all around the World. Do you have offices in different cities?
We just have the Barcelona office and a few offsite collaborators.
How big is your team in the Barcelona office? Do you keep in contact with the rest of the team in other cities?
We are 8 people in Barcelona and use the internet to coordinate with the others.
How would you describe the work environment?
Fun, flexible, multicultural, multilingual, quick, … and growing.
What do you look for in candidates for jobs in Knok?
Flexible, proactive, creative, energetic, willing to solve problems and willing to propose new ideas, multilingual, curious, loves travel, open-minded, and self-starter
Which is that special feature someone Must have join the Knok team?
Love for traveling, open to swapping homes and sharing local experiences, excited by challenges, passionate about languages
Last words…?
If you like traveling, if you have or would like to swap your home, if you think the world would be a slightly better place if we all traveled more, opened our minds a little wider, and embraced new cultures as we laughed at our own mistakes, then Knok would be a good home for you.
Business Profile:
Company: Knok
Website: www.knok.com
E-mail: lm@knok.com
Twitter: @knokstory
Founders and key employees:
- Juanjo Rodríguez
- Laura M. Celada
- Mar Rollán
Main Business Activities:
Online Home Exchange community
Main Customers:
Travelers that want to swap their homes while travelling abroad
Offices in:
Barcelona, Spain
Want to work in knock? Apply Here!
