Startups

The short-term rental sector continues to spawn startups worldwide, including Handys in South Korea. Plus, this week's other funding news includes startups offering insurance for pre-paid hotel rates and estimates of carbon emissions for business travel.

Hoteliers sent about $50 billion of rooms a year through wholesalers in normal times. Expedia Group and WebBeds want to take larger shares of that market. But private equity-backed companies like Hotelbeds and Fastpayhotels see an opportunity, too.

It was a positive week for the tours and activities sector as startups GetYourGuide, RocketRez, and Questo received financial infusions for digital offerings. Plus, other funding news.

Accel-KKR, a private equity firm based in Silicon Valley, supported Cendyn's merger with arch-rival NextGuest. Investors are betting that hotels will spend more heavily on data-based tools to gain an edge once the sector's recession ends.

Reading in between the lines, it seems like the Berlin-based online travel agency is hoping to make an acquisition or minority investment, most likely one that would expand its product portfolio such as for its white-labeled "originals" experiences.

This week, Skift’s top stories explored new business recovery strategies from Sun Airline's surprise IPO to Marriott’s new all-inclusive resorts, as well as the latest in global tourism from New Zealand all the way to India.

This week, travel startups announced more than $145 million in funding. Concepts included biometric security, mobile check-in for hotel rooms, booking hotel rooms in Vietnam, a membership-service for Chinese hotel resorts, and a digital concierge for intra-African travel.

HomeToGo goes against what is considered a viable business model for metasearch. The startup offers vacation rental property managers a somewhat different way to pay for reaching consumers. Yet Google remains a potentially dangerous rival, depending on how the search giant pursues the vacation rental sector.

Investment firm Certares is betting on Getaway, which rents cabins offering an outdoor experience to urban consumers looking for an escape from the digital world. The move reflects a wager on travel trends emerging from the pandemic.

Travel bookings will get worse before they get better. But we found a half dozen French travel startups defying the odds. They appear to be setting themselves up well for the post-crisis rebound. Bonne chance!