Everyone knows the ol' key-under-the-rock trick for hiding your spare keys for guests, but it's not exactly a secure method. Still, sometimes it's preferable to the scheduling nightmare of arranging when and where to hand them off. Not so if Hoard has its way, however. Describing itself as a local drop box, Hoard is essentially like Amazon's delivery lockers, except for your own stuff. Here's how it works: You use the app to find the closest "hoard spot" to you and get the code for a tiny locker box, as seen above. You deposit the keys in the appropriate locale, send a confirmation to your guest, and then he or she will use the same code to retrieve them (bearing in mind the code is only good for 48 hours). They can also use the same method to hand the keys back to you.
We spoke to Anthony Forsans, Hoard's co-founder, at a recent HAXLR8R event, and he says Hoard just started testing in Berlin and has plans to create more so-called "hoard spots" in San Francisco and New York. The service is free for now, though it does plan to charge around 3 Euros per use in Berlin at least. So far Hoard has already partnered with a Gloveler, a platform that lets folks rent out their homes, and CleanAgents, an European cleaning service, to help test the key-swapping service. Forsans tells us that Hoard isn't just limited to keys, of course -- anything that can fit within the roughly 10 x 8 x 10 cm cube is fair game. We'll admit our minds immediately wandered to the potential illegal drug-dealing uses for this, but we're hoping most people will use it for more legitimate purposes. To get a better idea of how Hoard works, hit the source link or watch the video below.
Your local drop box! from hoard on Vimeo.
Source: Hoard
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