Hotel Crowdfunding is Under Construction
In the sharing economy of the last few years and decades to come, crowdfunding seems to be seen as a more serious alternative to financing initiatives, even within the hotel and hospitality industry.
Let's go through a few interesting examples; most of them are already backed by millions of dollar of venture capital.
NIDA
Earlier TOPHOTELNEWS reported on how Nida is "Uberising" hotel rooms. The concept is that as a Virtual Hotel Operator, the Nida brand doesn't own or operate its rooms. The Nida brand sublets rooms in existing hotels and exploits them by using strong internet branding and quality standard. The company focuses on small hotels (60-80 rooms) that are individually branded – but "good hotels" that provide six key items – clean rooms, comfortable beds, air-conditioning, WiFi and functional amenities. The company has already attracted four rounds of venture capital, getting a total funding of $11.1M from 5 investors.
PROPERTY PARTNERS
Property Partner combines residential real estate crowdfunding with a secondary exchange upon which investors can trade their holdings. Until now, mainly residential properties have been funded, although hotel rental income will be considered as an add on in the future. Their properties can be seen via this link. Property Partners is based in the UK and raised $32.36M in 3 rounds of crowdfunding from 10 investors.
HOUSERS
Housers could be called the Spanish version of Property Partners. It's a crowdfunding platform that enables individuals to invest in real estate projects. Investors can receive monthly income from rents, and gains by the revaluation of the property. Housers also charges buyers when they receive dividends and do not charge commissions on portfolio and other platforms. Some projects are directly aimed at tourists. Take a look at a few of their funded properties via this link. Housers raised $2.39M funding in 2 rounds from 1 investor.
THE AMBERLAIR PROJECT
More recent and with fewer details known about their funding is the world's first crowdsourced boutique hotel. Their investors come from around the world, in all shapes and sizes – the project leverages on the fact that owning a part of a hotel is not just yield on capital, but also something psychologically fed by a certain wanderlust and considered as 'fun' investment.
Co-owning in hospitality is not completely new. Hapimag was founded in 1963 with a profit-oriented business model, and has over the years adopted a co-operative model to become one of Europe's most successful time-share providers. Its 130,000 shareholders and members can now choose from over 5000 holiday apartments in 60 resorts in the most beautiful locations in Europe, the USA, Turkey and Morocco. The model is different (stays are only possible for members and shareholders), but the idea of co-financing vacation rentals to get the best return is definitely at the centre of the whole idea.
It's an interesting movement that TOPHOTELNEWS is sure to follow, and if crowdfunding is not the solution to sell your hotel… just raffle it!
TOPHOTELNEWS is a platform which provides all the latest updates from the international hospitality industry. We are to the point, data driven and focus on what you love. Take a look at www.tophotel.news
Lennart Kooy
associate partner TOPHOTELMEDIA
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