Designed for connection. Built with purpose.
Our properties are designed for community. Our members rent a private room while sharing access to beautifully furnished common kitchen, dining and living areas. We have properties throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, Portland, and Seattle – and each property has its own unique design, name, and culture.
approach
Connection
The primary purpose of our homes is to enable meaningful connections and relationships.
Affordability
Our homes allow residents to live much better together than they could otherwise afford alone.
Lifestyle
Our homes are more than just a place to sleep – they are a place to make friends, attend or host events, run your business, and more.
design
more than just a bedroom rental.
Designed for Community
People are at the center of everything we do. We have discovered the perfect balance of bedrooms to common areas, optimizing layouts based on group size, social dynamics and the unique needs of community living.
Thoughtfully Furnished
We take great care in making our spaces feel beautiful, homey, and highly-functional. From high-end furnishings to useful appliances in the kitchens, your home come fully-equipped.
Systems
We’ve designed elegant solutions to unique domestic needs like food sharing, applicant interviews, and how to do the dishes. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel!
Service
We approach housing as a service offer various services that improve the experience and lower the friction of shared living. From professionally cleaned common areas to business-class wifi systems, you get more out of your housing experience than just a place to sleep.
Network
Our members are all about collaboration, so joining OpenDoor means access to brilliant, creative and well-connected friends in your home and other neighboring OpenDoor communities.
Technology
We are digital natives, using technology to make it easier to live in community. From rent payments to door codes to digital collaboration tools, we’ve built tons of solutions to making shared living easier.
Member Benefits
Click below for more info
on how the details work.
Kitchen
The kitchen is the center of any home.
Sharing a home means sharing a kitchen, and collaborating with friends to cook, eat and clean.
We equip our kitchens with everything from pots + pans, plates and bowls, mugs and forks down to spatulas and tupperware. We also add special extras like espresso makers and Vita-Mix blenders- its a dream kitchen!
Living Space
Space to Chill.
We furnish the common areas to feel cozy and serve a range of needs and uses - from dinner parties to acoustic music nights and group discussions.The living rooms, dining rooms, outdoor patios and other shared spaces are laid out, furnished and decorated with a balance of beauty, functionality, adaptability and durability.
Bathrooms
Bathrooms
Our homes have a mix of shared bathrooms and private ensuite bathrooms located in the bedroom.
When sharing, most folks share with 1 to 3 others, and generally shared baths are available to all, meaning if one is occupied, another is available for use.
Many residents leave daily toiletries in the bathroom, and store specialty items in their bedrooms.
Private Bedroom
A place to Unwind.
Each resident has a space to call their own. Since most of our residents are long-term, we generally only furnish bedrooms when it's necessary to optimize the layout. We never do bunk-beds or double-occupancy rooms (other than couples) - its important for people to have their own refuge.
Workshops
Workshops & Trainings
We provide our residents the opportunity to participate in a myriad of workshops that help you grow as an individual, a leader, and a better community member. Workshops themes include communication, governance, facilitation, conflict resolution, personal development, and more.
Meals
A community that cooks together, stays together.
We have shared food programs at all of our homes. Residents buy groceries collectively, elegantly managing for all unique diets and needs. "Family dinner" usually happens about twice a week, and meal prep rotates among residents who pair up to cook for the group.
Meals
A community that cooks together, stays together.
We have shared food programs at all of our homes. Residents buy groceries collectively, elegantly managing for all unique diets and needs. "Family dinner" usually happens about twice a week, and meal prep rotates among residents who pair up to cook for the group.
Pets
No Pets!
We don't allow pets at any OpenDoor properties- sorry! This is due to three main reason:
1) Allergies - having pets would mean people with pet allergies would not be able to live in the home.
2) Fairness - with 12 housemates, you can't have 12 dogs! So it wouldn't be fair to allow one person a pet and not another.
3) Wear and tear.
Utilities
No more bills!
We hold all the utility accounts, so you don't have to worry about paying them, splitting cost, etc. We also manage the wifi system professionally, because let's face it - no one is happy when the internet is down.
In many of our new development projects, we are building renewable energy systems onsite, and we're always looking for ways to improve the energy efficiency of our homes.
Couples
Coupling up.
Romantic couples are welcome, and usually comprise around 15% of our residents. There is a small couples fee which helps to cover the additional maintenance + utilities costs in the property.
Storage
Stuff abound.
We do our best to provide some personal storage space for a few boxes, camping gear, sports equipment, etc.
When space is tight, we sometimes charge for storage lockers to make it fair.
Cleaning
Professional Cleanings
We provide regular professional cleanings of all common areas and shared bathrooms. While it varies by property, it's typically on a monthly basis.
Tidying + Chores
Professional cleaning are great, but can't replace the need for good stewardship of common areas by residents. Residents are expected to pick up after themselves, as well as participate an organized-but-simple chore system, which each home self-manages.
What about the dishes?!
We encourage our residents to "leave no trace" in their homes, and that starts with the dishes! In all of our homes, there is a strict No-Dishes-In-the-Sink policy that is passionately upheld by silly antics and humorous reproach.
House Meetings
Communication + Governance
Living in community is an opportunity to improve collaboration skills and learn how to share resources, make compromises, and coexist as a group. We train residents in a simple-but-effective a house meeting process that allows the community to make agreements and settle ongoing issues around the house.
Many small decisions are made online over Slack, our online collaboration tool, where residents can communicate with each other and the OpenDoor team.
New Members
New Members
We believe that for a strong communities should have choice over who they live with. So when a room opens up, existing residents get the first chance to send us their preference of who they would like to move in. Many communities fill 100% of their room openings this way.
Onboarding
When someone new moves in, OpenDoor does an orientation call to welcome them. In addition, each home has a community manager that orients them to the specifics of their home and community.
Events
Gather and Celebrate
Our homes are great places to host and to entertain. From weekly dinner parties to special acoustic music nights, we've crafted event guidelines for you to host events without annoying your housemates or your neighbors.
We also support resident-driven events that welcome the whole OpenDoor community, encouraging residents across all the homes to connect.
Conflict
Conflict = Growth
People are always amazed to hear how little conflict happens in our homes. In part, it's because we encourage a culture of healthy collaboration and communication, in which our members embrace conflict as an opportunity for growth. We also provide professional mediation and conflict resolution if a community needs support in working something out that they can't handle on their own.
