New Craiglist competitor offers short-term sublets and house swapping

The Caravan homepage

Given the recent bad-news headlines many apartment hunters who enjoy Craiglist may worry that they’ll be the next unwitting victim of a Web-savvy serial murderer every time they look at an apartment. A new short-term sublet and house swap service, Caravan, aims to solve that problem by forcing users to go through a screening process before they can use the service. The concept is predicated on the idea that working through brokers is costly and time-consuming, but that skipping the middleman altogether is risky. The company says it’s geared toward creative professionals — the uber-trendy jet-setting types that travel internationally at the drop of a hat and can’t be bothered to hire a broker. While the service just started, early reports say that Caravan plans to expand its business, offering job and office space listings, in the coming months.