Student Rental Solution: Monetizing Trust
Mobile App
Company
Stealth Startup
My Role
Design Lead
Tools
Figma Adobe Illustrator Miro Notion
Timeline
3 Months
Challenge
To create a platform that helps international students find trustworthy homes while fostering a sense of safety and community in a new city.
impact
Trust & Revenue: +45% lift in trust, directly correlated to higher conversion intent.
Viral Growth: 60% advocacy rate, signaling strong market viability and high NPS.
Efficiency: 30% faster onboarding, leading to higher user retention and activation.
Problem
New York City draws over 126,782 international students annually injecting billions into the economy. However, this high-value demographic faces a critical market failure: a rental ecosystem plagued by fraud. With consumers losing over $39 Million to rental scams in 2023, the challenge wasn't just user friction. It was a complete breakdown of trust, representing a clear business opportunity to build a platform on the foundation of safety.
(Source: IIE Open Doors, 2023: FTC ),
Process
To build a defensible strategy, we chose a mixed-methods research initiative. The combined qualitative insights from 10 student and landlord interviews with a comprehensive competitive analysis helped us identify market gaps and define our core value proposition.
Market Study
Key data points that stood out in the research:
The market study with competitor analysis and mixed method research initiative revealed a critical market gap:
No major platform verified both listings & users, creating the very "trust gap" our users reported.
Solution
"The core business opportunity was not just a listing app. It was to monetize trust by building a verified, closed-loop ecosystem."
The potential solution for the "trust gap" was to target 3 critical spaces derived from the research;
Verification as a Pillar
This was the core strategic feature. Visual verification badges for landlords, listings (via utility bills), and tenants (via .edu emails or visas) create a "triangle of trust."
Scalable Community Tools
An in-app chat with built-in translation to bridge communication gaps. This feature was designed to increase engagement and build a pre-arrival community, creating a defensible "moat."
Context-Aware Filters
Beyond price, I designed filters for student-specific needs: proximity to campus (by walking/subway time) and detailed roommate lifestyle preferences to reduce cultural friction.
Projected Business & User Impact
The design strategy directly linked user trust to key business metrics, proving the ROI of a safety-first design approach. This data was derived from our initial User Testing and third round of interviews with the same set of Users from our initial testing.
Key Insights
