Findr and Route: why we built a different kind of marketplace

The problem both of us are trying to solve

Route and Findr exist because the traditional venue-booking world is broken. Want to hire a studio for an afternoon? A meeting room for a client pitch? A gallery for a product launch? You're left phoning around, emailing venues that don't reply, or using platforms designed for holiday lets and short-term rentals, which frankly don't understand creative or event bookings.

Both platforms recognised that gap. Both built marketplaces to connect people with spaces. But we took different paths from there, and I think that matters.

We decided to focus on the UK, and do one thing properly

Route launched in 2017 and expanded globally. They operate across multiple countries and verticals. That's ambitious, and there's a logic to it. But when we started Findr in 2023, we made a deliberate choice: go deep in the UK market first. Understand how British creatives book spaces. Learn what hosts actually need to run their listings without friction.

That meant building specifically for the way UK studios, halls, and meeting rooms operate. We're not trying to be everything everywhere. We're trying to be the obvious choice for someone in Manchester looking for a photography studio, or a freelancer in London needing a boardroom for a client meeting, or an event organiser booking a gallery space.

A smaller geographic footprint means we can move fast on what matters to our users. When we heard that hosts wanted calendar sync to prevent double bookings, we built it. When renters asked for a smarter way to search for spaces, we added natural-language search to our Plus tier. We're not managing dozens of markets and compliance regimes at once.

The host experience is different

Here's something that surprised me early on: most hosts don't want to be managed. They want to be trusted. But they also want to know who's booking their space.

Our Stripe KYC requirement isn't a friction point I apologise for. It means every host on Findr has been verified, and every renter knows they're booking from a real, accountable person. We vet hosts, yes. But once they're in, the marketplace does the work for them. They list their space for free. Calendar syncs automatically. Messaging happens in the app. No payment processing headaches. They only pay us a commission on successful bookings.

Compare that to some marketplaces where hosts pay upfront listing fees, or where the payment splits are opaque. We wanted hosts to feel like partners, not customers paying for visibility. That shapes everything we do.

Renters get choice and control

On the renter side, we let you browse and search for free. Always. That was non-negotiable. If you're curious about what studios exist near you, you should be able to look without handing over payment details.

Your first three booking requests each month are included. That's real usage. You can find a space, send a request, wait for the host to respond, negotiate if needed. If you want more freedom, Plus tier unlocks advanced filters and our natural-language search so you can search like you're talking to a friend. 'Photography studio with blackout windows in north London' instead of clicking through faceted search. Pro tier adds Instant Book on supported venues, so no waiting around.

Route has a different model. They've built a bigger platform with different pricing tiers and features. I'd honestly recommend you try both and see which feels right for how you book spaces. But I notice our users tend to stick around because the experience feels designed for UK creative work, not retrofitted onto a global platform.

Why we don't try to be everything

I could spend time worrying about feature parity with Route. I don't. Instead, we focus on one job: make it stupid easy for UK creatives and organisers to find and book real spaces, and stupid easy for space owners to earn money from spare capacity.

That focus is why we haven't built a CRM for venue managers, or event planning tools, or team collaboration features. That's not our job. Your meeting room host doesn't need advanced reporting dashboards. They need to know when someone's booked, respond quickly, and get paid.

Some people will prefer Route's scope and feature set. That's fair. But I'd rather build something our users genuinely love using than something that does everything badly.