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hostmaker.co/london/ bags £1.3M seed funding as Airbnb management Service



 hostmaker office environment

It is hard to fathom that back in 2009 VCs were far from convinced that Airbnb was ever going to be a big enough business to pump venture into. Fast forward to 2015 and businesses are being created that effectively sit on top of Airbnb, meaning that the then tenacious startup is now arguably an ecosystem in its own right.

London-based Hostmaker is one such business. It describes itself as an Airbnb hospitality management service, providing Airbnb hosts with housekeepers and concierge, as well as supporting them with things like pricing and marketing, including the listing of the property and providing professional photography.


hostmaker story so far ..


More broadly, the startup aims to solve the problem that for some Airbnb hosting has almost become a full time job and encompasses “listing your home and pricing it right to attract the right guest, coordinating housekeeping, washing linen, exchanging keys, maintenance issues etc.”

To help fuel growth and further European expansion — the service is currently available in London, Barcelona and Rome, and serves about 5,000 guests per month — the company has closed £1.3 million in seed investment led by DN Capital.

“After looking in detail at this market, and recognising the clear value proposition for Airbnb hosts, we are delighted to lead the investment in Hostmaker. We are incredibly impressed by the progress that Nakul and his team have made, and look forward to being part of fueling future growth.” Lawrence Barclay, DN Capital

Other investors in the round include Avala Capital, DSG Consumer Partners, Delivery Hero co-founder Nikita Fahrenholz and former MD of Airbnb India and Middle East Mohit Srivastava.

In terms of how Hostmaker makes money, it offers hosts two options. 

  • The first is a pay-as-you-go model “where existing Airbnb hosts can pick a premium hotel-style housekeeping and linen service or an in-person guest welcome in their absence”.
  •  Alternatively, hosts can opt for a fully managed option where Hostmaker provides a complete end-to-end service.

The latter includes handling everything from listing the property, responding to enquiries and pricing and yield management, to preparing the home before guests arrive and managing their stay.

Interestingly, the fully managed option pits the company against Onefinestay (but without the curation), although Hostmaker reckons it typically charges less in fees. onefinestay operates in London, New York, Paris and Los Angeles. The company provides a service to owners of distinctive and upmarket homes, ‘hosts’, by enabling them to let out their home to guests for short periods while the home is unoccupied.[which is probably why they have ex marketing executives, from designer clothes brand Ralph Lauren and artisan food ..] 

A far cry from the humble beginnings of founders, and team members the hostmaker.com. In today's marketing techworld mix ,never forget if "brand the image" caters only for "selective demographics " in a highly competitive startup environment , you won't appeal to the masses ; as for scale up, you may want to put down ,that wooden ruler.   

Other competitors of onefinestay include include Pillow in the U.S. and a plethora of on-demand services that provide a single aspect of the hospitality management service’s offering, such as cleaning, laundry and maintenance.

“Airbnb hosts realise how much work goes into creating a great experience for their guests and this can be difficult for them to fit into their busy lives, especially if they are themselves on holiday overseas. Hostmaker solves this problem by providing a service that takes all the hard work out of the process for hosts, while giving guests a high-quality experience,”  Nakul Sharma, founder and CEO of Hostmaker.

Further Reading 

Online Estate Agent Purplebricks.com valued upto £250M IPO as Early as December 2015

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