LONDON - Homelike, the tech startup re-inventing how business travellers book long-term accommodation, has opened up 15,000 furnished apartments for corporate travellers staying for a month or more in the UK since launching in the country a year ago. Travellers from 160+ countries have stayed in 20 towns and cities in the UK for over 100,000 nights this year through Homelike, enhancing the UK corporate landscape and contributing to local economies.
As of today, Homelike hosts 50,000+ furnished apartments on its platform from professional suppliers across 400 cities and spanning 9 countries, including the UK, Germany, Spain, Netherlands, Austria, and Switzerland. Globally, Homelike customers have now booked more than 1.5 million nights. In the UK, Homelike partners with top professional suppliers which offer a larger portfolio size of furnished apartments to cater to business traveler’s needs.
This year, the company has seen significant growth, expanding into the UK and Spain (where it now has 3,000 apartments) among others and growing its staff base to over 125 employees. In 2020, it plans to expand into even more locations around the world aiming for 100,000+ apartments globally.
Homelike works with individual business travellers as well as corporations such as Capgemini, trivago and Get Your Guide, offering a bespoke digital corporate booking experience. Homelike provides business travellers with a business-ready “home away from home” suited to their requirements (e.g. a property near the office location) and a price point 40% less than hotels in the same area. In London, for example, this means travellers can save hundreds of pounds a month, which is great news for corporate travel managers looking for cost efficiencies while improving comfort for business travelers at the same time.
The company was founded in 2014 in Cologne by Dustin Figge and Christoph Kasper because, as business travellers, they were fed up of being cooped up in hotel rooms when travelling to other countries long-term. Both found that long stays in a hotel had a negative impact on their physical and mental health and craved a “home away from home” when travelling which they knew would make them happier - and therefore more productive - when in different cities.
The company was founded in 2014 in Cologne by Dustin Figge and Christoph Kasper because, as business travellers, they were fed up of being cooped up in hotel rooms when travelling to other countries long-term. Both found that long stays in a hotel had a negative impact on their physical and mental health and craved a “home away from home” when travelling which they knew would make them happier - and therefore more productive - when in different cities.
The process of finding and booking apartments for over a month is fifteen years behind the tech-enabled hotel industry. It continues to be a localised, paper-based process meaning that it’s incredibly difficult for business travellers and travel managers to arrange a property from abroad, and even more difficult to find a home that is 100% suited to a person’s requirements. The gap in the market for a platform that makes booking a furnished apartment for over a month as easy as booking a hotel or short-term accommodation means that Homelike has grown incredibly quickly, raising capital from world-class investors such as Spark Capital, Cherry ventures or Comparison, who backed companies like getyourguide and travelperk.
Dustin Figge, CEO and co-founder of Homelike, said: “2019 has been a great year for Homelike, as we have strengthened our position as the leading marketplace for corporate housing. In 2020 we will remain focused on building out the perfect corporate booking experience, shipping new product features to make business traveler life easier and expand into more international territories as corporate clients are searching for apartments in +5000 locations on Homelike every month Founding the business because we suffered the negative effects of staying long-term in hotels ourselves, we are so proud to be offering more and more people a “home away from home” when travelling for work.”
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