Holidu, a Munich-based software and services vacation rental startup, has oversubscribed a €104 million (approximately $102 million) Series E funding round led by existing investor 83North. I went live and replenished my coffers. Revenue for 2021 he increased by 100%.
The round saw the latter camp’s Northzone, HV Capital, Vintage Investment Partners, Commonfund Capital and other existing and new investors including (former) Prime Ventures, EQT Ventures, Coparion, Senovo and Rios Ventures. I participated in a mix. and possible ventures.
The €100 million funding also includes €25 million in venture debt arranged by Claret Capital and Silicon Valley Bank. The equity component of the Series E is therefore €75 million.
Travel startups were hit hard by the coronavirus lockdowns early in the pandemic, but vacation rentals are poised to see more growth in the second half of 2020 and 2021 as lockdowns are eased and platforms are reconfigured. It recovered fairly quickly to meet reconfigured demand from travelers choosing domestic breaks. For example, go farther.
Villas are better positioned than other travel options such as hotels (or cruise ships) and offer an attractive private space where people can rest in peace even as vaccine deployments are still increasing. increase. And Holidu and its investors are relying on that increased demand.
The German startup told TechCrunch that travel and booking patterns have now largely returned to pre-pandemic conditions since 2019, with international (versus domestic) travel bookings increasing. Vacationers are also accustomed to planning ahead and booking about a month in advance again, compared to the shorter time slots people switched to during the height of COVID-19 uncertainty. also said.
After the pandemic (or rather, the peak of the crisis), demand for travel has rebounded strongly as many people are desperate to finally escape again, reflected in the greater growth in bookings by Holidaydoo in 2021. (100%) vs. 2020 (up about 50% year-on-year).
The company’s vacation rental meta search engine, which compares properties on more than 1,500 websites, says it has received more than 110 million visitors in the past 12 months. And with fresh funding in its back pocket, Holidu is preparing to boost its growth gas even further by expanding its regional office rollout to support its market outreach efforts.
The company’s second pillar of business aims to increase supply through a software and services strategy called Bookiply, which targets vacation rental hosts.
The unit has grown 13 times between 2019 and 2022, according to the startup. Specifically, his Bookiply revenue growth in 2021 was 4.4x — and he’s 3.3x his earnings in his first nine months of 2022. The number of Bookiply homes he manages has grown from 5,000 three years ago to nearly 20,000 today, and he believes there’s plenty of room to grow.
“As a group, we are growing at a high double-digit rate,” CEO and co-founder Johannes Siebers told TechCrunch.
“We know we deliver real value to our hosts and guests, and that is reflected in our very strong host retention and guest satisfaction ratings. We will continue to extend our approach to Europe’s large and attractive hosting market.This funding round is a huge vote of confidence in the current environment.We are on the road to building a large company.” he added in a statement.
Holidu’s growth has been fueled by a number of acquisitions in key markets. Holidu acquired veteran holiday home portal Spain-Holiday.com last year. Earlier this year, we acquired two of his vacation rental service companies (Lohospo and my.IRS) focused on the German-speaking market, strengthening our service offering in the DACH market (Germany, Austria and Switzerland). .
“With our Series E funding, we are open to further acquisitions on the supply side,” Siebers said.
The startup reported achieving profitability in its search business in 2020, but he said it remained focused on scaling and said it was too early to consider an IPO at this stage. (Note: Holidu was founded in 2014).
“With nearly 20,000 properties on Bookiply, we still consider it ‘early’ for us,” he said. “The global market is huge and we are fully committed to expanding our real estate base in new and existing areas and developing products for hosts and guests.”
Discussing trends that have accelerated over the past three years, he cites the adoption of vacation rentals as a big one. He points to a McKinsey survey that found that 43% of travelers in 2021 have booked a vacation rental for the first time – a quarter of respondents said they will continue to rent at least half of their trips. I plan to stay.
Siebers said the flexible working patterns established as a result of the pandemic have also led to an expansion of the travel season, boosting booking demand for “shoulder seasons” outside of core school holidays.
And the final (contradictory) trend he points out is the demand for “sustainable” vacation rental homes. Accommodations labeled “eco” by Holidu have a 12% higher click-through rate and a 29% higher conversion rate than other accommodations. This suggests that travelers are looking for ways to offset the environmental guilt they may feel about getting off a plane by taking steps to reduce their overall emission burden on vacation. I’m here.
One growth trend Siebers doesn’t mention is rising rents for long-term tenants looking for accommodations they can actually live in.
While housing costs are exacerbated by a cost of living crisis that is driving inflation and interest rates, along with a long-term shortage of affordable housing inventory in many areas, vacation rentals remain a viable option for long-term tenants. complicating the situation by further reducing the number of accommodations available for rent.
The trend calls for regulators to crack down on short-term rentals so that they can encourage more towns and cities to adopt measures to limit vacation rentals, especially in cities and regions that are also popular tourist destinations. Rising housing costs are therefore one of the pressure points that could pose a more severe obstacle to the future growth of the vacation rental sector in the coming years.
This report has been updated to correct the total amount raised after Holidu provided an incorrect (truncated) figure for the amount of euros originally raised. They said he had raised 100 million euros, but he was later told that the actual amount was 104 million euros. Therefore, we have corrected the numbers.
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