Lodgify

Lodgify is a software-as-a-service which empowers lodging operators to build their own professional website and accept direct bookings with online payments.

BASIC COMPANY INFORMATION

Name of company:
Lodgify

Name and position of the person responding:
Dennis Klett (Co-Founder & CEO)

Brief description of company and business model

Lodgify is a software-as-a-service which empowers lodging operators to build their own professional website and accept direct bookings with online payments. Lodgify’s multi-channel platform also allows users to connect with and fully synchronize their listings on external platforms such as Airbnb and Booking.com, so that they can manage all their bookings and payments from one central system.

CEO + Founding team. Brief description of trajectory

Dennis: My mother used to run a small vacation rental business in a ski resort. One day, she asked me whether I could set up a website for her where guests can instantly book her vacation rental. I had web design experience in the past, but didn’t have the time to do it myself. So before building the website from scratch, I was searching on the internet for a website builder software tailored to hospitality businesses that easily enables users to create a bookable website and manage their reservations – similar as Shopify was doing for retail stores. I couldn’t find anything suitable – and that’s when the idea popped up to create Lodgify.

Year of incorporation:  2012
No of employees: 60
Management team:

  • Dennis Klett – CEO & Co-founder
  • Marco de Gregorio – CTO & Co-founder
  • Alex Vuilleumier – COO

PROJECT DETAILS

Sector
SaaS (Software as a Service)

Volum of investment taken in
$7,2M

Main goals achieved

  • 2015: Seed round – €600K
  • 2016: Seed round – €1.4M
  • 2018: Series A – $5M

Other achievements in the past years include:

  • Full automation of the booking workflow for hosts, from booking management to guest communication, payment scheduling and refunds.
  • Strong growth of direct bookings. The direct channel is transforming into a very significant channel for players in this industry. Our software encourages owners to grow their share of direct bookings; empowering thousands of customers to process millions of dollars in booking revenue every month.
  • Developed deep connectivity and advanced API integrations with Airbnb, Booking.com and HomeAway. This allows hosts to use Lodgify as a true multi-channel platform to manage all their reservations centrally.
  • In terms of the team, we’ve quadrupled (from 15 to 60 people), including the hiring of a new COO.

Main challenges in the future

  • Continuing to scale the team and our operations without losing the speed and agility that a startup needs.

Why did you choose to establish the company in Barcelona?

There are many reasons we chose Barcelona as home for our headquarters. Not only are there huge startup and travel tech scenes in the city, but there is also a very good quality of life, it has a hugely international environment and there are very motivated, talented young professionals either already living here or willing to relocate – meaning we can attract the best talent from abroad quite easily. Of course there are other attractive benefits such as the beach, the weather, amazing local food and the fact that the cost of living is significantly lower than other European hubs. We absolutely love being based in Barcelona.

CONTACT DETAILS

Location: Carrer d’Aragó, 182, 6a planta, 08011

Web: Lodgify

OTHERS

Inspiration? A model, company or business person/entrepreneur?

  • Shopify has always been an inspiration when building Lodgify, mainly because of the parallels in the business model – it shows us what we could achieve. They’re a product-first compay, as is Lodgify, and it’s applicable to both the smaller eCommerce or a huge multinational one – again something we hope to achieve in the future. They’re democratizing eCommerce software and decentralizing the online shopping industry.
  • Tesla is another company whose strong vision and innovation is truly changing the world,

Recommended book or books

  • Zero to One – Peter Thiel
  • Sales Acceleration Formula – Mark Roberge (former SVP for Hubspot)

What websites do you use to keep informed?

  • Techcrunch
  • Skift
  • VRMIntel
  • VRMB

What apps you use most on your mobile?

  • Twitter
  • Pocket
  • Google Earth

What else would you like Barcelona to offer?

  • More startup/business-friendly approach to relocating people from outside of the EU. There are so many talented people in the world that can’t get the correct paperwork in order to stay here, it’s a big missed opportunity.