How Johannes Siebers, Co-founder and CEO of Holidu Raised $48.8M To Build A Search Engine For Vacation Rentals

Johannes Siebers is the Co-founder and CEO of Holidu, the search engine for vacation rentals. Holidu was founded in 2014 by Johannes and his brother, CTO Michael Siebers. The Munich based startup now operates in 21 countries worldwide, employs 200+ staff from more than 40 nations, and recently received a €5M extension of its €40M Series C funding.

Johannes Siebers is a business graduate and studied International Business Administration in Tübingen, Madrid, and Sydney from 2004 to 2009. After his studies, he worked for Siemens in Munich in the field of venture capital. There he was able to accompany the successful development of various start-ups and see that with good ideas and hard work, everything is possible. He took this enthusiasm with him into his own project – alongside his brother, Michael – of Holidu.

Holidu is a search and booking platform for vacation rentals that allows you to find your perfect accommodation and book for the lowest price. They partner with large online travel agencies, regional tourist offices, and local specialists to provide you with the large selection you need to find the perfect rental for your vacation.

Their proprietary image recognition technology detects if the same vacation rental can be found on multiple websites and will always show you the lowest price.

In an exclusive interview with AsiaTechDaily, Johannes says:

It is because of a great team with an amazing team spirit. Even during corona crisis times, when our company faced massive challenges, from travel bans impacting our business to lockdowns pushing our staff into remote working, the team was well connected virtually. It really came together to work hard to ensure our company kept on functioning. 

We are passionate in our strive to focus on the customers. Receiving positive customer feedback, especially during the pandemic, was also extremely motivating and encouraged us to continue to operate as we were. We love to see that we do make a difference to our customers’ vacation planning, and as avid travelers ourselves, we know just how important that is. 

Read on to know more about Johannes Siebers and his journey.

Please tell me about your personal background and What motivated you to get started with your company?

Johannes Siebers: My background is in International Business, having studied that at the University of Tübingen, Sydney and Madrid. Upon graduating, I started my professional career at Siemens in the area of venture capital. My experience here overseeing the successful development and growth of various startups certainly contributed to my strong desire to found and lead my own company.

As siblings, Michael and I have long cherished the plan to start our own business. Michael – today the CTO and with whom I co-founded Holidu – has a technical background that compliments my experience in venture capital very well. 

What is your current main product, and can you share any previous product pivot story to the current product?

Johannes Siebers: Our mission is the following: To make the search and booking of vacation rentals easy. There are so many accommodation rental sites on the market. Holidu collects and compares the offers from more than one thousand of these sites and provides our users with access to more than 15 million properties worldwide, showing them all at the lowest price they are advertised at. Furthermore, Holidu has several optional filters allowing the users to search for the perfect vacation rental for their trip, for example, with a pool and pet-friendly.

Two years after we founded Holidu, we also launched our subsidiary company, Bookiply. The Bookiply software and service is designed specifically for vacation rental property owners and provides the owners with a whole range of features to help make their lives easier, including synchronized bookings and calendars to avoid double bookings – which are still a huge problem in the vacation rental market, providing description texts and property photos created by our in-house content team and network of professional photographers, payment collection and a 7 days a week customer service. The vacation rental market is still ten years behind other digital markets in terms of technology, so there are enormous opportunities.

How much money have you raised in total so far? When was the recent funding round? And how many investors have you met so far, and how did you meet these investors, and which channels worked best for you?

Johannes Siebers: Our Series C funding in 2019 saw us raise €40M, and we are very happy to be supported by many financially strong investors, such as EQT Ventures and Prime Ventures. 

In September this year, we received private funding of €4m from Dutch businessman and ex-Booking.com CEO Kees Koolen, which was part of a €5m extension of our Series C funding. Kees has been working with us as a member of our board for the past five years, and we are thrilled to have his continued support. He helped to build success for many huge global companies, such as Booking.com and Uber. Having someone with us who has brought companies like those to the global size and popularity they are now is incredibly valuable.

How do you handle this COVID-19 outbreak situation for your company’s survival in the future?

Johannes Siebers: The COVID-19 pandemic has shifted travel behavior considerably. There has been a sharp increase in focus on domestic travel, while it has also led to more last-minute bookings. The lockdowns at the beginning of the year left many people desperate to get out, so we saw that as soon as travel was permitted again, people began to search and book straight away, particularly in safer locations closer to home. We even found ourselves at one point, almost getting overwhelmed by the great demand. Fortunately, we were able to react quickly, thanks to our team’s strong work and the internal technology tools.

Despite the ongoing pandemic, we are thrilled that our company turned profitable in May and since then generated seven-digit positive EBIT figures. More than 27 million users visited the Holidu website in July alone, resulting in a 2.6x growth in year-on-year bookings and more than €130 million of newly generated bookings that month. We hope to continue to work hard and see our growth continue to rise in the coming months.

What advice do you have for someone who is interested in doing similar things like yours or in a similar direction?

Johannes Siebers: It helped us reach out to the best people we could find if we wanted to learn more about a certain topic. Learning from the best can be an incredible shortcut to progress. 

How do you keep yourself motivated every day?

Johannes Siebers: It is because of a great team with an amazing team spirit. Even during corona crisis times, when our company faced massive challenges, from travel bans impacting our business to lockdowns pushing our staff into remote working, the team was well connected virtually. It really came together to work hard to ensure our company kept on functioning. 

We are passionate in our strive to focus on the customers. Receiving positive customer feedback, especially during the pandemic, was also extremely motivating and encouraged us to continue to operate as we were. We love to see that we do make a difference to our customers’ vacation planning, and as avid travelers ourselves, we know just how important that is. 

What would you like to be remembered for?

Johannes Siebers: To have built with my brother and our team the largest and most complete solution for the vacation rental market, Holidu is a search engine for travelers’ vacation rentals and our streamlined Bookiply service and software for homeowners. 

If one day my brother and I will sit at a beach and we can look back and say that we built a lasting and sustainable company that is great for its customers, for its employees, for its investors, and society and the environment, we would feel happy. 

You can follow Johannes Siebers here.

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