(Overnight's founders, from left: Artia Moghbel, Ethan Kravitz, and Asher Hunt.Overnight)

When home-sharing app Overnight made its Austin debut before South by Southwest this past March, the company's founders weren't sure what to expect.

Overnight had already launched in Los Angeles, so Austin was its second citywide roll-out.

The launch was a success for the company, which offers users on-demand booking of short-term rentals. Think Airbnb meets Hotel Tonight.

Overnight's rentals were cheap — private rooms were going for $70 or $80 and entire homes were available for $150 — and users could find accommodations in 10 minutes or less.

But something even more important happened that week — something that founder and CEO Asher Hunt is incredibly proud of. Hunt said he received an email during the festival from someone who had booked their stay on Overnight and had a great experience. Here's how Hunt tells it:

"There was a guy who requested at 1:30 in the morning in Austin. He was tattooed and so easily could have been profiled, and he booked with a woman who was 65 years old. The next day, it was her birthday. He’s like a 21-year-old rapper, fashion designer, and athlete and it’s him, the 65-year-old woman, and her housekeeper, and they’re singing happy birthday to her and drinking coffee on the terrace."

It's interactions like that that separate Overnight from other home-sharing apps and other startups in general, Hunt says. The goal of Overnight is to create a community of hosts who not only offer a reliable travel option at the last-minute, but who are also clued into what's interesting, cool, and exciting in their city, and are willing to point their guests in the direction of great bars, restaurants, and activities.

(Overnight aims to expand internationally now that it's made its debut in New York.Overnight)
Overnight also aims to be a self-selecting community of forward-thinking, open-minded users, Hunt said.

"There are a lot of conversations right now about racism on short-term housing platforms, or really any of these platforms," Hunt said. "It exists on all these things when you’re facing a one-on-one interaction with somebody. If we look at how we avoid these kinds of things, it’s community, it’s education, and it's saying, 'these are the things we support and these are the kinds of things that we absolutely do not support.'"

Hunt said the company has heard of stories of racism among some users of sites like Airbnb or Uber, and is working to apply what it's learned to Overnight. The goal, he said, is to combine technology, community-building, and an ethos of respect throughout the company.