Futurestay
– one of PhocusWire’s Hot 25 Startups for 2020 – has raised $2.4 million in a
venture round led by BNM Ventures and New York Angels, with participation from Newark
Venture Partners and Harvard Business School Alumni Angels. The company’s total funding to date
is $6.5 million.
Founded
in 2015, Futurestay is a technology platform for independent short-term
vacation rentals that automates guest communications, bookings, pricing,
payments, distribution and more. The company currently works with more than 100,000
properties in 120 countries, primarily in North and South America and western
Europe, and has partnership with Booking.com, Airbnb and Vrbo.
The
COVID-19 crisis has caused the company’s bookings to drop by about 85%. But founder
and CEO Philip Kennard says he is confident demand for short-term rentals will
return, so for now his focus is to improve the Futurestay product, increase
partnerships and build supply – which he says continues to increase by about 3,000
properties per month.
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“While
bookings are down 85%, our volume of new property signups is nearly unchanged
from pre-pandemic levels. They are down only 8% off their highest peak ever,
which was in November,” Kennard says.
“That
tells us that the independent hosts – essentially entrepreneurs - are not
giving up. They are finding solutions to help their business survive the
pandemic.”
Kennard
says his optimistic view is that his business will be back to pre-coronavirus
levels by the first quarter of 2021, but he is creating a strategy to “give us
runway into 2022 ... and it’s possible travel will be disrupted far longer than
that.”
To
reduce costs, Kennard says Futurestay has cut all marketing spending, put a
freeze on hiring and cut contractor projects.