GuruHotel, a startup that says it is on a mission to become “the Shopify
of hotel websites,” has raised $2.1 million in seed funding.
The round was led by Anthemis Group with participation from Y
Combinator, 500 Startups, Magic Fund, ArkFund and other investors.
Founded in 2019, GuruHotel has built a platform that enables
hotels to build their websites and start selling rooms online in less than one
hour. Using GuruHotel, the websites can instantly accept multiple payment
options and connect to online distributors such as Booking.com and Expedia,
channel manager SiteMinder and other apps for analytics and marketing.
Subscribe to our newsletter below
The company says it currently works with 160 hotels in Mexico and
the Caribbean and is aiming to have 1,000 hotels by the end of 2022. GuruHotel
charges a 5% commission for each booking its hotels receive.
The company says it has seen substantial growth during the pandemic, going
from $80,000 in gross booking value on its platform in 2019 to $400,000 in 2020
and an anticipated $3 million for 2021.
Co-founder Josue Gio says next the company wants to integrate with
more channel managers and property management systems.
“In the future, we want to build a complete experience from
booking, to check-in, during your stay, when you checkout or when you are
ready to share your experience in that hotel with your friends,” he says.
Prior to this round, GuruHotel had raised $550,000 in a pre-seed
round.