In the world of new social stay start-up, Travelmob, everyone in Asia can be a host and tour guide and co-founder Turochas Fuad believes this will unlock the kind of local experiences desired by a growing breed of travellers coming to the region.

From a host in Hanoi who will offer cooking classes and water buffalo tours in rice fields to private villas of the sort that will make you swoon with pleasure, Travelmob wants to offer travellers unique stays and local travel experiences in Asia Pacific through a social network of hosts and guests.

"We are creating opportunities for new hosts from villa owners to boat houses to private apartments to couches," Turochas Fuad (right) said. "And the hosts that we've met are all excited to create opportunities for additional revenues."

Travelmob works on a similar model as the hugely successful US-based site, AirBnB, but is staking its future as an Asia Pacific specialist, offering regional content to a global audience.

Fuad believes that just as low cost airlines changed travel in the region, so will social stay models such as Travelmob, which will enable travellers to fully fan out into local communities and also empower local communities to participate in the growing tourism pie in the region.

The site launched recently, with media events in markets such as Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, India, Australia and Hong Kong. Travelmob, which is "comfortably funded" by its two co-founders and private investors, is rolling out aggressively in a bid to create brand awareness.

"This is still a new concept in many parts of Asia and there's a lot of education to be done. We are basically a platform play for anyone who wants to put up their services and people who participate in this must understand the constraints."

As such, a big part of what Travelmob wants to do in this early stage, other than create demand and expand content, is to educate both hosts and guests on the etiquette of hosting and being hosted. "We want to teach people how to be good hosts and good guests. For instance, in Asia, we have different customs than in the West – you take off shoes for instance when you are in people's homes."

Sites like Travelmob are entering a grey area. In Singapore, local regulators have ruled that property owners who rent out their rooms or apartments to paying guests risk getting fined up to $200,000 or jailed up to a year.

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