YourWelcome Helps Rental Hosts to Upsell Their Guests: Travel Startup Funding This Week

Each week we round up travel startups that have recently received or announced funding. The total raised this week was more than $4.5 million.

>>YourWelcome is a London-based technology startup that lets hosts of short-term rentals and serviced apartments create interactive property guides, or tablet-based versions of the customary binders of information about the property for guests.

Hosts can profit off of selling add-on services, such as late check-outs, mid-stay cleanings, and luggage storage provided either by the host or by third-parties.

YourWelcome says it has raised $1.28 million (1 million pounds) in a round led by Flux Group, alongside angel investors, such as Fuller’s ale CEO Simon Emeny and James Devitt of the independent hotel investment consultancy Herald Hotels.

YourWelcome, which has a dozen employees, provides a tablet for guests at short-stay accommodations that enables property owners to sell more than their space. It works on a subscription model. For a fee of nearly $10 a month, property owners lease a tablet that they can customize to charge guests for additional services.

Guests apparently like the devices, despite the upselling, as they feature video instructions on how to use features of a property and can optionally offer remote check-in for guests.

The startup has signed a partnership deal with Expedia-owned HomeAway. Since its launch in May 2016, YourWelcome has installed its tablets in more than 2,000 properties in about two dozen countries.

>>Touristly, a tours-and-activities booking platform based in Kuala Lumpur, has received a $2.6 million convertible debt investment from AirAsia, giving the Malaysian airline half ownership in the company.

Founded in 2015, Touristly focuses on aggregating excursions in China, India, and Southeast Asia.

AirAsia says it hopes to upsell its customers on activities. Touristly will let the airline pitch vacation package offers to its customers. The startup has not disclosed its previous funding.

>>Handiscover is a travel startup aimed at helping people with special needs find short-term rental properties that are accessible. It has raised $679,034 in a fresh round, bringing its total funding to $1.09 million.

Entreprenörinvest, a venture capital firm, led the latest funding round.

Handiscover took its first booking a year ago and says it has more that 2,000 active users and lists more than 4,000 accommodations in more than 40 countries. The company says it has 12 employees.

Unlike some other attempts at serving this space, Handiscover tries to closely match needs with properties by querying users with questions such as “how mobile are you?”

The startup has an integration with Wheelmap, a site that maps wheelchair-accessible places.

Check out our previous startup funding roundups, here.