Startup HomeToGo Is Defying Conventional Wisdom in Vacation Rental Search

Hometogo, a price-comparison search service for vacation rentals, has had a robust revenue stream despite the pandemic. The Berlin-based startup credits its endurance partly to the relative popularity of holiday homes during the pandemic. But its founders also note how their company has relied on a somewhat different business model to traditional metasearch brands to attract both property management companies and consumers to its marketplace. They are cautiously optimistic about 2021, except for their worries about competition from Google. HomeToGo is believed to have raised about $176 million in venture capital since its founding in 2014. Back in late 2018, when it disclosed raising a funding round of more than $150 million, HomeToGo looked like a typical go-for-broke startup. It generated annual losses partly because it relied on marketing expenditures to attract customers and build its brand. In 2018, the company boosted its sales by 44 percent to about $64 million (€52.7 million), according to the most recent financial filings available. But its marketing and personnel costs also rose. So it experienced a loss of approximately $21.6 million (€17.8 million) in 2018, compared to a loss of about $16 million (€13 million) the year before. So how is the company doing now, post-pandemic? The company said it doesn't discuss financials with the media. But co-founder and CEO Patrick Andrae said the company had a "strong 2020" and that it is in "a very healthy financial position."

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"(Two years ago) was already fewer losses, and we ended 2020 basically not worse than 2019," Andrae said. "Our bookings in 2020, subtracting cancellations due to the pandemic, were only slightly below 2019's level for the full year. Our year-over-year bookings in the summer months we