CnBean

Inspiration

Drawing inspiration from Airbnb and Snap Maps, we set out to create a more casual and social take on vacation rentals. In college, it's common for friends to crash on each other’s couches when visiting new cities—especially in a place like Boston. We wanted to turn this everyday experience into a seamless, fun, and community-driven platform that makes finding and offering a place to stay as easy as checking a map.

What it does

Users start by logging in with their username and password. From there, they enter their travel destination, which takes them to an interactive map displaying available couch spaces from friends in that area. Each marker on the map represents a listing, where users can view details about the couch’s conditions and availability. With just a few clicks, they can request to rent—or "surf"—a couch, making travel more affordable and social.

How we built it

We built this application using React and ViteJS. We integrated the Google Maps API for the map and marker tracking.

Challenges we ran into

One of the challenges we ran into was setting up the Google Maps API. We also dealt with merge conflicts via Github.

Motivation and impact

We chose CnBean for our hackathon project because it offers a way to lower travel costs while allowing friendships to grow. The keynote speaker’s talk on networking inspired us, and we saw this app as an opportunity to strengthen those connections.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We were able to successfully integrated the couch listing popups on the map markers. Additionally we added custom logos and drawings for a fun, interactive experience.

What we learned

We learned how to integrate APIs into personal projects and how to set up React environments.

What's next for CnBean

We also want the user to be able to add friends on our app, which requires adding a backend server to support multiple users and reservable couch listings. We also want previous couch surfers to leave their reviews and ratings on their friends' couch.