Golightly’s Plan for Home Share Security for Women

Traveling solo as a woman comes with a few additional precautions that groups or solo men don’t necessarily have to take. The onset of home shares — which involves renting a room in a shared space or renting an entire person’s private home — brings a new host of safety issues that don’t exist when booking a hotel room. Sites like Airbnb do their best to ensure security, but another private home-sharing company has since sprouted and only offers such services to female travelers.

Golightly is a network of women travelers that offers short-term rental options to other women travelers. What’s more: Members must go through an application process in order to join this “club.”

All properties are owned and managed by women, whether rooms in shared apartments or entire homes for private use. Members are carefully vetted and profiles are only available to be seen by approved members. The approval system involves an ID verification, a phone consultation and a “badging system” that involves a virtual walk-through of the property if Golightly staff are unable to verify the space in person.

Although it’s a women-only network, travelers are welcome to stay at the properties with both male and female travel companions.

New to the market, Golightly only just launched in January 2020 with 300 properties. Since the launch, the company has grown to nearly 600 properties around the world, including in cities like Austin, Barcelona, Chicago, London, New York, Paris and San Francisco.