Ragged Edge rebrands Airsorted as Houst to move away from its Airbnb-based origins

The rebrand was initiated to help the brand scale up from its origins in 2015 when it was set up to help Airbnb hosts deliver a hassle-free but professional experience for their guests. The concept was that Airsorted would manage the home-sharing experience on behalf of the homeowner. Since then the business has expanded to help hosts manage their guests' experience across a full range of platforms including Booking.com and Expedia.

With the new branding, Ragged Edge says it aimed to set the brand up to redefine the property-management category it created. "As a category, we'd all focussed on removing the hassle for the homeowner, but the reality is that a great hosting experience requires input from both sides," says Airsorted co-founder and CEO James Jenkins-Yates. "To set ourselves up for success, we needed owners to see us less like a service, and more as a partnership to help them get more from their home."

Max Ottignon, a co-founder of Ragged Edge, says that the project aimed to reach an audience "who were looking to maximise their assets – including their homes – to free up their lives. So we started to build the brand around the idea of opening up opportunity."

The new name, Houst, is an amalgam of the words' house' and 'host'; while the visual identity aims to be striking and authoritative, but fun – based around a striking wordmark built of quirky letterforms with rounded edges to create a warm, personable feel. The bold yellow and black colour palette cuts aim to stand out against "the conservative aesthetics of the rest of the category," says Ragged Edge.

The agency adds: "Other parts of the identity communicate the opportunity on offer. A graphic system uses shapes inspired by floorplans to house content that expresses what Houst makes possible – from the imagery of the target audience enjoying their freedom to copy that encourages them to 'do more'. Less hassle-free, more possibility."