Inspirato Reports Growth in Luxury Subscription Travel Ahead of Going Public

Inspirato said it added a significant number of subscribers and inventory partners in the third quarter as it prepares to merge with blank check company Thayer Ventures Acquisition Corp. on February 8 and go public soon after.

The startup, in a Wednesday financial filing, formally reported it had boosted its paying subscribers by 12 percent, to 13,191, in the nine months to September 30.

While the company had disclosed the statistic before, Inspirato's latest pitch deck provided updated context, compared to the last deck released on June 30.

For example, the company's flagship product is called Pass. For $2,500 a month, Inspirato's Pass program lets vacationers access luxury vacation homes and hotels, with benefits such as an all-call concierge. The startup said it needed only 3,300 Pass subscribers to generate $100 million a year in annual recurring revenue from that product. It forecast it would reach that level this month.

As context, the startup said reaching $100 million in annual recurring revenue was comparable to Peleton having achieved its first 214,000 subscribers at an average $468 a year — or Spotify having obtained its first 834,000 members at an average $120 a year fee.

In other words, in the luxury travel sphere, a company may not need many paying customers to make a subscription travel model thrive.

Inspirato reported projected revenue in 2021 of $221.3 million. It forecasted that it would operate at a loss until 2023 as it pursued growth.

Inventory Jump, With Questions

Inspirato also reported a jump in inventory. It has increased the accommodations it controls by 24 percent, to 492 residences and hotel penthouses in the year to September 30.

Some of the company's claims sounded better than the reality might be. In October, the company expanded the options for Pass subscribers from about 150,000 options to over 1.5 million, and it gave subscribers the flexibility to hold multiple bookings at once. But some users have complained that many of those options don't have frequent real-time availability.

Here's the latest pitch deck, fact-checked in November and filed on Wednesday, below: