Capital One to the Rescue? Inspirato Looks for Boost Through Its Strategic Partner

With a $10 million financing deal and new CEO from private equity firm One Planet Group, Inspirato is now looking for support from another investor, Capital One.

Inspirato President David Kallery said during the company’s second-quarter earnings call Wednesday that the company is finishing integration work with “strategic partner” Capital One, and plans on taking reservations from the credit card company starting in the fourth quarter.

Inspirato, the struggling luxury vacation club, is working with Hopper, which powers Capital One Travel, on the tech work, he said. Capital One is a major investor in both Hopper and Inspirato.

“We expect this partnership to increase Inspirato’s brand recognition, serve as a demand driver for paid nights, generate new membership sales, and ultimately be a key contributor to Inspirato’s future growth,” Kallery said.

He said Inspirato has moved into the testing phase of the integration. “Capital One, I’d argue, is one of the most prolific companies definitely in the United States, today in North America around demand,” Kallery said. “You can’t really watch the Olympics or just about any other sporting event without seeing them. And we think they’re going to make an amazing partner.”

Mixed Messages From Inspirato on Subscriptions?

The earnings call came a day after Inspirato announced the financing deal from One Planet Group, now Inspirato’s largest investor. Its founder, Payam Zamani, became Inspirato chairman and CEO.

Asked by an analyst what attracted him to Inspirato, one of the reasons Zamani cited was that “I love the concept of a subscription model with 12,000 members that represent some of the most successful people in our country and beyond. So that, by itself, is extremely interesting.”

Inspirato Club members pay an enrollment fee and subscriptions at a variety of durations to get access to luxury hotels and resorts, and then they pay members-only nightly rates at the properties. Inspirato Pass is another subscription program that has recently been tweaked to provide access to last-minute trips to luxury hotels and resorts. The newest product, Inspirato by Invited, enables users to book stays two years in advance at fixed rates.

Earlier in the discussion, Kallery said over the past year Inspirato “returned to our roots as a luxury travel club and moved away from a high-churn, transaction-based subscription model. Since the beginning of 2023, more than 75% of our new sales for Inspirato Club, which is the foundation of the company, have been for 2 years or more. Second, we reimagined Inspirato Pass to serve as the perfect complementary offering to Club and to cater to a frequent and highly flexible traveler.”

The company has also begun offering vacation packages and experiences.

Zamani said he sees an opportunity to further trim costs, adding they are currently about 10% larger than they should be.

The Numbers

In the second quarter, Inspirato narrowed its net loss to $15.4 million on revenue of $67.4 million, a 19.9% drop.

Subscription revenue fell 30% and travel revenue dropped 19%.

The company didn’t provide an outlook for the rest of 2024.