There seems to be no end to the number of startups operating in the travel and accommodation space. These range from online travel agencies, hotel booking sites and aggregators, to companies that help hotels fight back in an attempt to get more direct bookings. And of course there is Airbnb and its ilk.
One growing sector we can add to the travel accommodation list is long term stays for business travellers. Enter Cologne-based Homelike, founded in 2015 by Dustin Figge and Christoph Kasper. The German startup targets business travellers who need “long-stay” accommodation of a month or more and for which a hotel doesn’t really cut it. Citing growing demand from both the supply and demand side, the startup has just raised €4 million in Series A funding led by Cherry Ventures, with participation from existing backer Coparion.
“Due to many international work assignments, Christoph and I used to work and live abroad for several months with stays in China, the U.S, and some European cities. Eventually we were both tired of staying in hotels with limited privacy and without a ‘home away from home’ feeling,” explains Figge, Homelike’s CEO.
“Furnished apartments were more comfortable, flexible and also significantly cheaper than hotel rooms. We both liked it way more than hotels! However, it was anything but easy to find a suitable apartment and book it online from a remote location. That was the point, the idea for Homelike, and thus our business was born”.
As the pair began to…