'Unhotel' service onefinestay allows well-heeled travellers to live like locals in luxurious surroundings. A concierge service and careful property curation provide value at a time when comparison sites are seeing hotels lose their spark.

International tourism reached over 1 billion in 2013, and is set to rise further in 2014. Attempting to pair up some of these travellers is Tripr - an app trying to “radically change the nature of youth travel” by pairing up people going to the same destination.

The rapid rise of smart technologies can make creating and maintaining meaningful human relationships a challenge. In response, EatWith offers its users an authentic dining experience coupled with the opportunity to form new social bonds.

Driven by an increasing sense of loneliness, the concept of a shared house is being adopted by Japan's young singletons. Yet with so many people in Japan struggling with social anxieties, how are these micro-communities forming?