Roomlr funding, OhHeyWorld opens up, FindMyCarrots, Tourlandish-HolidayIQ, and more

This is a roundup of product news and announcements for travel STARTUPS in tourism and hospitality for February 2014...

27 February 2014:

Roomlr captures funding from SanomaVentures

The Dutch rental search engine has already attracted Euro 1 million in seed and angel investment. The Sanoma injection was undisclosed. Roomlr allows users to search across a range of other rental sites such as HomeAway, Housetrip, 9Flats and InterHome. The company was founded by Bas Lemmens, previously of Booking.com, EasyToBook and Isango.

OhHeyWorld goes open source

The startup (TLabs here), which is a location-sharing mobile platform for travellers, is inviting developers and other companies to collaborate on building a wider solution to centralise what it currently believes is a fragmented marketplace for social relationships between people and products. The platform will be made freely available to other communities to utilise and build on.

FindMyCarrots adds hotel search and booking

Semantic search-based startup FindMyCarrots (TLabs here) now parses (free text) hotel queries. The application looks for more than 45 hotel-related keywords/parameters in a hotel search query entered by a user. Also, TrustYou scores are displayed for all hotels displayed in search result. And, users can complete the hotel booking in TripAdvisor.

Tours and activities marketplace Tourlandish (TLabs here) has partnered with India-based trip planning website HolidayIQ to list its inventory in the planning site. This is the first distribution partnership for Tourlandish.

GrabTaxi enters Vietnam

Singapore-based mobile-only taxi hailing service has launched in Ho Chi Minh city,Vietnam. In the next few weeks, the company is planning to launch in Hanoi. Competitors of GrabTaxi in Vietnam include EasyTaxi, PingTaxi, TaxiNavi and Tappxi.

25 February 2014:

TripBAM reports record traffic for January

TripBAM, which helps secure the lowest price hotels via "cluster" searches, reports 300% site traffic growth in the first month of 2014.

18 February 2014:

Lodgify, the SAAS service for holiday rentals, joins Seedcamp London 2014

Lodgify, an application to help vacation rental owners manage their business, will be working out of Google's London offices for the next three months. Mentors will help the startup develop its product, build a company, and scale it.

TalkHotels relaunches hotel social network

The startup first appeared on the scene in early-2012 (TLabs here) with a view to creating a platform for hoteliers to connect, exchange ideas and find local suppliers. The site got a new look last week as it aims to grow its database of 1,500 members in over 100 countries.

FlightCar opens doors for business travelers as sharing economy grows into B2B

Earlier this month, car rental startup FlightCar announced a product aimed at business travelers who normally expense parking. The service costs $15 per day to park the car, but then pays up to 50 cents per mile driven while the traveler's car is in the company's possession.

7 February 2014

RunUp Labs, the travel technology incubator, is accepting applications for their 2014 class of startups until the end of this month.

The program runs through the summer, and interested companies have until the end of February to apply here.

6 February 2014

DogVacay announces new hires

The online P2P dog sitter service has brought on Kerry Bennett as Senior Vice President of Marketing and Jeanne Anderson as Senior Vice President of Product. The company says that they "will help DogVacay continue its rapid growth while bringing new expertise to further the development of the company’s overall innovation and community."

5 February 2014

Loco2 partners with Renfe, the Spanish state-owned rail company.

The startup, which allows travelers to purchase tickets through rail operators that used to require direct booking, will make it possible to book all Spanish train tickets as of 18 February on its new mobile-optimised site.

OptionsAway raises $1.1 million, which adds to the already-raised $600k

The startup, which allows travelers to purchase an "option to buy" a particular flight prior to making a final decision and thus locking in the price, will use the cash to pursue a 2014 strategy "to integrate its solution with key strategic partners."

Apartum now serves 25,000 destinations with 500,000 apartments in 50 markets worldwide