Articles tagged “startups”

This week, startups raised funding to help simplify cross-border transactions, lend consumers money to book travel, offer airport valet services, map interior spaces, automate back-office processes for rental property managers, and split the booking of multiple-night hotel stays. They'll have a happy New Year for sure.

Much of the success of a travel startup hinges on its business model. A new Skift and Amadeus travel startup survey found that subscription-based, personalized pricing and unbundling models show the most promise to those in the space.

Who needs Santa? This week investors announced more than $179.5 million in funding for startups that specialize in hotel revenue management, baggage transport, and online travel services.

Tech innovations like blockchain, AI and machine learning have the potential to change the way travel companies do business. Some already demonstrate significant promise in the effect they’ll likely have on the space, while others are still mostly hype. A new survey by Amadeus and Skift looked at how individuals in the travel startup sector actually feel about the utilities of these emerging tech tools.

Two startups aiming to help vacation rental property managers, one that helps hoteliers market their neighborhood's attractions to guests, and one that helps give business travelers cash back on purchases together raised $18 million this week.

What keeps travel startup founders up at night? According to the results of our new travel startup survey, fledgling travel businesses face a variety of obstacles, including finding the right people, misunderstanding market dynamics, weak business models and challenges with data complexity.

After years of following startup funding trends, it's tempting to move to a developing country to start an online travel agency or metasearch company. On the other hand, we can list dozens of reasons not to.

Research shows that there’s a significant gap between early, mid and later stage funding rounds—unfortunately, it makes sense. The very nature of early vs. middle-to-late stage funding makes it difficult for startups in the travel space to move beyond the beginning stages.

For anyone who’s ever had to wrangle a payment from a friend for a trip, this new Airbnb payments feature is a very welcome early holiday present.

In the California gold rush, businesses once sold pickaxes to prospectors. In today's vacation rental gold rush, they're selling management services to the property owners. The safest bets are always adjacent services.