附近上门

an Austin-based hospitality startup aiming to bridge the gap between Airbnb and hotels, has closed on a $25 million Series B.

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Traditional VCs , MarkVC, and participated in the round, as well as real estate firms , and . The financing brings The Guild鈥檚 total known venture funding to $31.5 million, and follows an October 2018 $8.5 million Series A.

Boutique hotel developer and tech marketplace founder founded The Guild in 2016. The pair were former 鈥渞oad warriors鈥� who traveled a lot for their careers. Their aim with The Guild is to give business travelers a comfortable, consistent place to stay. When the suites are empty, those spaces are available for leisure travelers. The startup essentially partners with apartment and office developers to turn full floors into hotel-like, tech-enabled suites, which are then in turn booked by the night to business and leisure travelers.

鈥淲e will operate multiple floors of a building as a hotel,鈥� Herndon told me. 鈥淲e offer a lot of the extra space, local vibe and experience you get with Airbnb but with the amenities and services of a traditional hotel.鈥�

Today, The Guild operates 565 units across 15 properties in six markets: Dallas, Austin, Miami, Cincinnati, Nashville and Denver. Another 235 units are in the latter stages of construction and should come online in the first half of this year. It saw 81 percent occupancy last year. Part of its bookings come from agreements with corporates such as Amazon, Google and Silicon Labs.

The 170-person company plans to use its new capital to launch into six new markets over the next 24 months and continue to invest in improving its platform so that stays can be more 鈥減ersonalized鈥� for its guests.

A guest experience focus

The Guild claims to be different from other high-flying startups in the alternative accommodation space in that it is not out to 鈥済row at all costs鈥� by raising 鈥渘ine-figure venture rounds at increasingly high valuations amid rapid global expansion plans.鈥�

Instead, The Guild says it is pursuing a more deliberate strategy focused on improving the guest experience, particularly for business travelers. Each property has slightly different unit economics. While the startup is willing to do master lease agreements if it is clearly the better financial option, The Guild says it typically favors asset-lite agreements in which the property manager funds the capital requirements. This, it says, allows for better financial alignment between the property manager and The Guild, allowing the startup to focus more resources on the guest experience.

The Guild doesn鈥檛 go in and knock down walls or that sort of thing, but it does hire professional interior designers to provide custom furniture and decor.

Other higher-profile companies in the space include short-term rental provider , which reached unicorn status last July with its $210 million Series D raise, and , which raised a led by last year.

The Guild investor and advisor a boutique hospitality pioneer who founded Joie de Vivre and later became Airbnb鈥檚 global head of strategy and hospitality, said the startup is smart to focus more on guest experience rather than number of locations.

Maveron partner agrees, noting that The Guild鈥檚 鈥渉igh underwriting standards and operational strength have driven impeccably strong unit economics and high capital efficiency at a time when competitors have focused on growth at all costs.鈥�

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