Holidu, a Munich-based startup that compares the prices of listings across sites like AirBnb and Booking.com, has raised €40m, joining an increasingly crowded space of startups raising money to help make sense of digital holiday admin.
The company’s meta-search engine scans the internet for holiday accommodation listings pulls them all onto one site, so that people don’t need to shop around on several websites. It’s trying to be a bit like the flight-search engine Skyscanner, but for accommodation.
Holidu also has a newer offering called ‘Bookiply’, which is a set of tools to help renters manage the other side of the same logistical problem. The system helps renters manage their digital presence by distributing properties to the biggest travel websites, synchronising calendars and creating multilingual descriptions.
“The vacation rental market is still ten years behind other digital markets so the opportunity is huge,” said Michael Siebers, chief technical officer and co-founder of Holidu.
Holidu is not the only search engine to aggregate holiday sites. It currently competes with Berlin-based HometoGo, which is backed by Insight Venture Partners, as well as sites such as AirBnb, which are still the first point of call for holiday shoppers.
The company plans to use the cash to focus on its Bookiply offering. It aims to ramp up the number of holiday rental owners using Bookiply’s tools, and will open several regional offices.
Holidu’s expansion isn’t the only news in this space. Over the past couple of days, a string of other startups are also cropping up to shake up the world of holiday admin.
Barcelona-based Amenitiz raised €620,000 in seed funding yesterday for its own tools aimed at people looking to book out a property. They offer holiday renters a purpose-built website builder, booking engine, channel manager and SEO optimisation software.
On the same day as Amentiz’ raise, a Prague-based startup called Davinci Travel raised €2.1m. The company’s idea is to make group travel easier through its platform which simplifies group travel by making bookings alterable by more than one person. They currently work with around 10,000 hotels throughout Europe.
