Holiday Online

Idea

Introduction

Founded by former Head of Overseas for Rightmove, our mission is to capture the Holiday Listings Market in Coastal and Rural regions around the UK. We acquire private holiday lets from owners of single and multiple properties and market them online in return for a commission on bookings.

We don’t compete with Airbnb (they are one of our partners!). Instead, our aim is to attract the properties they do not have, create the property listings ourselves and put them onto their site and others such as Booking.com.

How do we get listings they don’t have? We use a hyperlocal approach to target owners. Our first brand, NorfolkHoliday.com, is able to talk directly to a segment of the market with a brand offering a local service but a global digital reach.

This is a powerful combination when presented to owners based in remote Coastal and Rural areas who are not necessarily technology or marketing savvy to do it for themselves.

Note: size of target market is an estimate based on certain assumptions.

Intended impact

We believe we have made a simpler offering for owners with self-catering accommodation to reach digital travellers.

The choice on offer for owners is to pay 3% to a platform like Airbnb and be responsible for the entire digital marketing journey themselves, or to hand the property to a full service agent who will manage the whole process, including the checking in of customers, for a fee of around 20%. We sit in the middle, typically charging 10%, to market your property, to send you a ‘head on a bed, leaving property owners to do the part you enjoy – being a great host!.

Earlier this year, Airsorted, who operates a similar model, raised £7M on a £26M valuation with Seedrs. They and companies like them have opted to target cities both in the UK and Overseas.

Our approach is slightly different in that we target Coastal and Rural areas where we feel the market is currently underserved.

Substantial accomplishments to date

• Sept 17 Design and Build of Prototype
• Oct 17 Promoted concept to property owners.
• Established partnerships with Airbnb and Booking.com.
• Jan 18 Launched NorfolkHoliday.com.
• Feb 18 Receive our first traveller bookings.
• Apr 18 1st commissions paid to us for completed traveller bookings .
• Sept 18 Welcomed our 200th guest.
• Nov 18 Recognised by Grant Thornton as a Dynamic Business Shaping Norfolk's Vibrant Economy.

Our owners are now recommending us to other owners. With the fundamental platform already built, we believe we now have the potential to add real scale and reach out to more owners post funding.

Monetisation strategy

We have a flat pricing model which charges 10% + VAT to hosts for bookings. Our model means we make money when our hosts do so our interests are aligned.

The value on our business for a potential buyer down the line will in part be based on the number of property listings we have on the books, which is why we have made it super simple for owners to sign up.

Later on, we expect to generate ancillary revenue via 3rd party referrals. As an example, we have already had conversations with Inlet, who are one of the first providers to offer specialist host insurance, and they will pay commission for referrals.

Use of proceeds

This seed round is being raised to fund expansion of our offering in Norfolk and Suffolk whilst laying the foundation for potential growth in other key areas. The proceeds from this campaign will be allocated in the following way:.

80% Customer Acquisition.
10% Product Development.
10% Office & Administration.

Customer Acquisition – We have a hyper local strategy to attract new owners based on a playbook tried and tested by the founder during his time working with the leading property portals. We have an ambitious target to reach 200 owners in the 12 months following this raise.

Product Development – Having built the core product, we will continue to add new features and also build out our Suffolk offering.

The company has an outstanding debt of £30,000 in favour of a company owned by the founder. This will not be repaid from use of proceeds and is only repayable once the business is profitable