Founder Spotlight: Jonah Hanig, CEO

The furnished rental market has a trust problem. Bad photos, listing issues, maintenance surprises, and no standard for what "good" actually means. Jonah Hanig didn't find this in a market report. He lived it. After completing Y Combinator and moving to San Francisco, he spent months cycling through furnished places with other founders, none willing to commit to a 12-month lease in an uncertain world. Every property was a gamble.

That experience became Rove Travel: a marketplace for luxury monthly rentals you can book instantly and actually trust. Since 2021, Rove has grown to become the largest luxury rental marketplace in New York City, now expanding into Southern California and other major markets. We sat down with Jonah to hear the full story: from Y Combinator to building a company, and what it takes to earn real trust in a category that has historically offered so little of it.

Could you introduce yourself and share the story behind founding Rove? What inspired you to start this journey?

I started Rove Travel in the summer of 2021, after building a different software company and completing Y Combinator. I’d just moved to San Francisco and I lived in a string of furnished places with other founders; none of us wanted to sign a 12-month lease because the world was so uncertain.

The experiences we had with properties were wildly inconsistent. There were multiple properties that didn't look like the photos, listing issues, maintenance issues, and no standard for what “good” meant.

That gap was the whole idea for Rove Travel: a marketplace for luxury monthly rentals you can book instantly and actually trust!

Outside Rove, I love to cook; mostly Italian and Asian. The most recent dish I'm working on is perfecting a phat kaphrao recipe: minced chicken, Thai chilis, and basil, and a fried egg over rice. It's a simple dish, deceptively hard to make amazing.

I’m also a runner. I ran D1 in college and placed top 100 in the NYC Marathon, running 2:36. The training mindset carries over to building a business. Show up daily, compound small gains, and attention to detail - it all matters!

What were some of the biggest challenges you faced while building Rove, and how did you overcome them?

After Rove launched, we had considerable momentum and pressure to grow quickly, which led us to open up 7 markets in our first year. Launching 7 markets was a mistake because it spread us too thin across our teams, and we lacked some focus. We consolidated to 3 core markets, and since then have grown much faster and more efficiently.

Looking back, what was it like to grow Rove Travel so close to the COVID-19 pandemic? How did it shape the direction of your business?

Launching after the worst of the pandemic was a tailwind in disguise. Remote and flexible living went from niche to normal, and people wanted longer stays in beautiful homes without committing to a lease. The demand was already shifting our way; our job was to make it trustworthy and easy.

How has the rise of AI affected Rove Travel? Do you see that as a good or bad thing?

It’s central and completely transformed the business. We’re building Rove to be AI-native; our software handles the operations for Hosts and gives guests a faster, smarter booking experience. I see it as clearly good: it lets a small team deliver a consistently high-end experience at scale, which is exactly what trust in this market requires.

How would you describe Rove's core philosophy and company culture? How do you make sure these are reflected in your team and operations?

The Rove team is extremely ambitious and hardworking, but at the same time we have a very collaborative atmosphere with the feeling that everyone is on the same team. I am very fortunate to be surrounded by incredibly talented colleagues, and I do my best to keep everyone pointed at the same goal. Each person makes their own decisions about how to focus their time and efforts, collaborating together on the best approach to reach our North Star metrics.

A Day in the Founder's Life: What does a typical day look like for you as the founder of Rove? How do you balance strategic planning with day-to-day operations?

I try to spend a lot of time talking to our customers (homeowners and renters) and we are always thinking about how we can deliver a better experience for our clients while also making our business more scalable, so we can make a bigger impact on more people.

Regarding specifics on day to day, I spend time discussing strategy and providing feedback across various parts of the company, but I also make lots of contributions as an individual contributor, which I believe is important for the founders of any early stage company to truly understand the pain points of scaling a business.

What excites you most about coming to work every day, especially when you're facing a tough challenge?

The product. When a guest books a home sight-unseen and it’s exactly what we promised, and has a great experience, that’s the whole thesis working.

Rove operates in a highly competitive industry. What new ideas or unique approaches have you introduced to stay ahead?

Rove Travel is now the largest luxury rental marketplace in New York City, built on a really unique business model that provides owners the opportunity to make more money with monthly rentals while aligning Rove's interests with the owners.

Customer experience is central to the travel and accommodation sector. How does Rove focus on and enhance customer satisfaction?

I live in a building that has a Rove unit, and I try to greet and get to know our guests in the building whenever possible. I even participate in troubleshooting for them and trying to understand what we can do to provide a better experience.

Looking ahead, what are your aspirations for Rove in the next five years? Are there new markets or services you're aiming to pursue?

The goal is to become the largest luxury rental marketplace; that starts with owning the US. We are now expanded into Southern California, with LA as a natural next high-end market, and we’ll keep moving into major city centers with premium properties and global clientele.

What I’m most focused on is trust. We have the chance to build the highest-trust marketplace in the category: every property is easily bookable, curated, and consistently excellent.

More than 50% of Rove homes were previously not bookable online (you needed to go through a broker if the home was rentable at all). What excites me most is expanding the luxury market. We can do that on both sides of the marketplace at once by improving the guest experience while making the owner experience much better.

What advice would you give to aspiring entrepreneurs looking to start their venture in the travel and accommodation industry?

Just get started. Start building a product and talking to customers. Nothing else matters.

Are there any other companies (or CEOs) that you admire and impact how you manage Rove Travel?

Bezos and Amazon, mostly for the discipline of building around what won’t change. He asks what won’t change in ten years, then builds around it: customers will always want low prices, fast delivery, and selection. For a marketplace I’d frame it as trust, price, and convenience. His other line I keep coming back to: “We start with what the customer needs and we work backwards.”

What was the best business advice you've ever been given?

Two things. The Bezos ethos above: build around what the customer wants and what won’t change. And the YC mantra: build something 10 people love rather than 1,000 people like. Get the product right and everything else follows.

Where is your favorite destination you’ve visited, and why?

I love the South of France: the climate, energy, food, and people make it one of the most exciting places in the world. Europeans know how to vacation. I have a college friend from there with a couch I can crash on which makes traveling all the more accessible.

What is something that most people don’t know about you?

I placed 76th in the 2021 New York City Marathon, the same year I founded Rove. It was a lot of training and work but the most rewarding race I ever ran.

Final Thoughts

What comes through clearly in Jonah's story is that Rove was never built on a trend. It was built on a personal frustration, a precise diagnosis of what was broken, and the discipline to fix it the right way. The furnished rental market has long lacked a standard for quality and trust, and Rove set out to change that from day one. Now the largest luxury rental marketplace in New York City and expanded into Southern California, Rove is doing exactly what Jonah set out to do: make booking a luxury home as reliable as it is easy. Whether you're a guest looking for a curated stay or a homeowner wanting better returns, Rove Travel is at your service.