travel
Airbnb cancels all bookings for DC during Inauguration week
Airbnb won’t be hosting anyone in Washington DC during the week of the Presidential Inauguration, the company said in a statement. Brian Chesky took to Twitter to confirm the company’s mov
Ahead of inauguration, Airbnb pledges bans for anyone involved in Capitol riot
Building on a policy that the company said has been in place since the Charlottesville protests back in 2017, Airbnb said it will take additional steps to beef up community protections for the DC metr
Unicorn travel startup Hopper is facing a pandemic-fueled customer service nightmare
Mobile travel app Hopper has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic as consumers canceled their trips and airlines dropped their flights. But the complications around getting airline credits and refun
Tripadvisor shares drop following China app ban
The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) announced it has banned 105 mobile apps for violating Chinese internet regulations. While almost all of the apps are made by Chinese developers, American t
5 questions from Airbnb’s IPO filing
Airbnb filed to go public yesterday, offering the world a look into its financial performance over the past several years. The company’s S-1 detailed an expanding travel giant with billions in a
The VC and founder winners in Airbnb’s IPO
After a tumultuous year for the travel industry, Airbnb’s long-awaited IPO filing just dropped. One thing is clear: there is still plenty of juice left in the home-sharing platform, and a smattering
Reposite streamlines the most tedious tasks for travel agents
Meet Reposite, a software-as-a-service startup that wants to help travel agents of all kinds deal with their daily tasks. While the travel agency industry is huge, most people who work in this industr
GetYourGuide closes $133M convertible note as travel startups continue to weather the COVID-19 storm
On the heels of Germany announcing another lockdown to try to contain the rapid rise in COVID-19 cases in the country, one of the hottest startups in its capital city is announcing the closing of a la
Merging Airbnb and the traditional hotel model, Mexico City’s Casai raises $23 million to grow in Latin America
With travel and tourism rising across Latin America, Casai, a startup combining Airbnb single unit rentals with hotel room amenities, has raised $23 million to expand its business across Latin America
Understanding Airbnb’s summer recovery
New numbers concerning Airbnb’s summer performance were reported this week, with The Information adding to the performance figures that Bloomberg previously detailed earlier this year. Airbnb an
Airbnb nears IPO as Asana and Palantir land their direct listings
World events have so far not stopped the enthusiasm for tech investing, and really, where else are those dollars going to go?
Prosus Ventures leads $13 million investment in Pakistan’s ride-hailing giant Bykea
Bykea, which leads the ride-hailing market in Pakistan, has raised $13 million in a new financing round as the four-year-old startup looks to deepen its penetration in the South Asian country and beco
Travel activities platform KKday raises $75 million Series C as it focuses on ‘staycations’
With lockdowns around the world, the COVID-19 pandemic has hit the travel industry especially hard. In Asia, however, several startups are adapting by focusing on domestic activities (or “stayca
Berbix raises $9M for its identity verification platform
Berbix, an ID verification startup that was founded by former members of the Airbnb Trust and Safety team, today announced that it has raised a $9 million Series A round led by Mayfield. Existing inve
After early-COVID layoffs, Hipcamp is buying competition, hiring
When shelter-in-place was first announced in the United States, most companies in the travel space saw bookings drop. Some shuttered. Hipcamp, a San Francisco-based startup that provides private land
Mastercard acquired and shut down IfOnly, an experiences marketplace hit by COVID-19
Travel has undoubtedly been one of the industries hardest hit in the coronavirus pandemic, constrained by restrictions on how people can move between and within countries, many venues closing, new rul
Airbnb declares all parties over indefinitely at its listings
Airbnb has been implementing measures to help limit hosting of unauthorized parties at listings booked through its platform, and today it implemented the strictest of all: a global ban on all parties
Omio takes $100M to shuttle through the coronavirus crisis
Multimodal travel platform Omio (formerly GoEuro) has raised $100M in late stage funding to help see its business through the coronavirus crisis. It also says it’s eyeing potential M&A oppor
Traveloka tops up with $250M amid the coronavirus crisis
Indonesia-based online travel portal, Traveloka, has picked up $250M in fresh funding to beef up its coronavirus-battered balance sheet. The travel aggregator dubs the capital injection a “stron
COVID-19 pivot: Travel unicorn Klook sees jump in staycations
Spring 2020 was gloomy for Klook. As countries closed their borders and went into complete or partial lockdown, the SoftBank-backed travel platform saw its revenue plummet by as much as 90% through Ma