i3 - September/October 2017 - 32

Policy

By Bronwyn Flores

FAC E S O F I N N OVAT I O N

David Krauss, Co-Founder
and CEO, NoiseAware

police are called to a short-term rental property, it is a burden on municipal services.
Responding to noise complaints is not critical. In today's short-term rental industry, you
have a unique dynamic where activity that
happens on the internet is difficult to
regulate, monitor, and then enforce.
NoiseAware
The real people behind this industry
allows hosts to
- such as myself, an entrepreneur
remotely and
who is also a manager of eight shortproactively
respond to noise term rental properties in Dallas - are
nuisances.
knocking on city hall doors all over
the country offering our help.
A city working on how to create
reasonable, enforceable and complianceoriented legislation should seek the help of
these newfound industry experts. I think we
can bring best practices and speed up the
learning curve. Personally I'm seeing cities
actually reach out to me, so that's a great
turn of events. In cities all over the country
- Nashville, Charleston, San Diego and
Coachella Valley - I've been meeting with
or short-term rental hosts, homeowners and property
city council members. The most interesting
managers who want to ensure their neighbors are not de
part of my job is that we can actually make
facto noise monitors - look no further than NoiseAware. a difference in city hall as a young company.

The hardware-enabled software as a service startup aims to
solve the noise issue in short-term rentals by allowing hosts to
remotely and proactively respond to noise nuisances. "We call
ourselves the smoke detector for noise," said Co-Founder and
CEO David Krauss, who recently spoke with i3.
Q Why did you start NoiseAware?
A NoiseAware started as a personal,

horrific Airbnb nightmare. One weekend
I had guests who threw a "mini-Coachella"
party. I was the unwitting host and
ashamed neighbor when I found out two
days after the guests departed they earned
14 noise complaints, a police report and
cost me $30,000 in fines. I was woefully
unaware, even though I was two miles
away. My inability to be aware of the noise
issue led to that "necessity is the mother
of invention" moment. By a stroke of luck,
I met my co-founder: a brilliant electrical
engineer named Andrew Schultz and the
brains of the operation. He built systems
for the U.S. military, so building a smoke
detector for noise was child's play.
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SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017

Q How are you working with major
players such as Homeaway?

A We realize when noise nuisance issues get

into the legislative arena they are a threat to
the viability of this entire short-term rental
industry. NoiseAware helps Homeaway solve
one of their biggest problems and they gave
us a hand up - not a handout - by saying,
"Hey, we want to help you guys succeed
because it helps us." We're also backed by
former HomeAway COO Tom Hale.

Q What is a public policy

challenge that you face?
As an early-stage startup, you have to
be solving a real problem otherwise there's
no point. We came at our business from
a personal and very real problem. When

Q What's next for NoiseAware?
A We are hell bent on solving the noise

nuisance issue in short-term and vacation
rentals. As a team of 10 people, each of us at
NoiseAware care deeply about the sustainability and future of short-term rentals and
also our customers who are responsible, good
actors providing amazing experiences and
accommodations. There are other folks who
are giving short-term and vacation rentals a
black eye. We are looking forward to deepening our partnerships with the platforms and
cities going forward to bring technology
to bear that has proven that it can solve the
noise nuisance issue. We've started an advocacy arm called Rent Responsibly to educate
lawmakers and celebrate the wonderful
things in the short-term rental community.
We want to carry the flag of the responsible, neighborly renter, host and owner.
It's important for the sustainability of our
industry that everyone gets on board because
if you're not part of the solution, you're likely
part of the problem.
I T I S I N N O VAT I O N

http://noiseaware.io

i3 - September/October 2017

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