Seedcamp Startup Empowers Vacation Rental Owners and Managers to Grow their Hospitality Business
Lodgify, a vacation rental technology startup, announced today that it has closed a €600,000 seed round of financing led by angel investor Chris Hitchen, HOWZAT Partners, Venrex Investment Management and other notable angel investors including Roland Zeller, former CEO of travel.ch and Kilian Thalhammer, former managing director of Rocket Internet startup PAYMILL.
Lodgify’s robust, browser-based service enables vacation rental owners and managers to easily create a website for their properties and manage their reservations in real-time, without paying commission. The Barcelona-based startup is a Seedcamp alumni, Europe’s leading accelerator and mentoring program, and has seen rapid growth in its customer base across the US and Europe since launching in 2013.
“Lodgify’s mission is to empower vacation rental operators to grow their business through technology,” says Dennis Klett, co-founder of Lodgify. “Our product pipeline is filled with innovative features and new website templates tailored to the modern needs of hospitality businesses. With this funding we can aggressively expand our product development operations.”
The startup will use the funds to enhance its website building software, expand the product team, and unveil additional features. “We are very impressed by Lodgify’s technology-focused approach to tackling the vacation rental industry’s challenge to generate more direct bookings,” says Chris Hitchen. “Their intuitive user interface and set of innovative software tools positions them strongly in a lucrative and growing market.”
With its versatile and scalable product, Lodgify also sees itself tapping into the independent hotels market in the near future. “Our focus is on vacation rentals, however, we are receiving a lot of interest from hoteliers who would like to challenge the dominant position of Online Travel Agencies and regain more control of their bookings,” says Klett. “They see the potential of our software helping them to drive direct bookings and build their own brand.”
Lodgify offers scalable subscription plans based on a monthly fee for both vacation rental owners and managers with 1 to 500+ properties. The service includes mobile-friendly website templates, an online booking engine, reservation system and channel manager. “From the feedback we’ve had, people love managing their vacation rentals using Lodgify,” says Klett. “It makes them feel empowered again.”
Find out more on http://www.lodgify.com
About Lodgify
Lodgify is a software-as-a-service solution that allows vacation rental owners and managers to easily create their own accommodation website and accept online bookings. Owners can manage all reservations from one place and synchronize property data with their booking channels. Lodgify’s vision is to empower hospitality businesses with technology and help them become less dependent on commission-based listing sites. Launched in 2013, Lodgify is a Barcelona-based travel technology company that develops innovative software for the hospitality industry.
