RootRez raises $1.8M to launch lodging e-commerce software in new markets

Lodging e-commerce solutions provider RootRez has raised $1.8 million in seed funding for expansion.

GW Capital and Peak Capital Partners led the financing into the Salt Lake City, Utah-based company, which provides destination tourism organizations with a fully customizable white-label booking engine to help drive local economic demand. 

Founded in 2015 as the booking engine and lodging service provider for the Sundance Film Festival, RootRez has grown to serve more than 50 cities across North America. Its technology helps clients, including DMOs, events and resorts such as the city of Vancouver and Alta Ski Resort, generate revenue and drive commission-free bookings to their hotel partners. 

“COVID-19 was a validating period for us. While it was no doubt a challenging time to be in the travel space, we grew our SaaS revenues over 300% during the period, retained all clients and sent tens of millions of dollars of commission-free bookings to our city partners and their eager for occupancy lodging constituents,” says RootRez founder, president and CEO Jason Linder.

“By layering localized promotions and packages for travelers combined with hotelier business alignment, we’re changing the landscape of lodging e-commerce at the local level. Our clients can now stimulate demand for their destination, service travelers more effectively and have the attribution data to measure their results. It’s rewarding to be a solution for our partners.”

RootRez’s central reservation system gives clients access to live rates and availability of hotel, property management and short-term rental units through global distribution systems and channel managers. Technology integration partners include Sabre, TravelClick, SiteMinder, Booking.com, Vrbo and Expedia, among others.

With the funds, RootRez will expand into new markets and add to its 17-person staff with engineering, sales and client support team hires.

“We’ve taken a more conservative funding approach than many technology companies,” says Linder. 

“Instead of large capital raises and growth at all costs, we’re methodically built a strong foundation focused on profitability and technological efficiencies. Our bootstrapped approach taught us to be tenacious and is now paying dividends as we move forward.”