Travel Report: 22 Online Startups Generating $346M in MRR

Nomads.com: $36,000 in Monthly Revenue

destinations for location-independent workers

Nomads.com (previously Nomad List) is a platform showcasing the best places to live for digital nomads which was founded in 2014 by Pieter Levels.

The website shares relocation destinations for remote workers based on climate, internet speeds and living costs, and allows users to filter through these to find the best remote working locations for them.

The Nomads.com community, which is over 34,000 strong, allows users to connect and meet new people in thousands of cities across the world. They can also read reviews of certain areas and find coworking spaces.

The cost of access to the network when fully priced is $200 for a lifetime membership, though we can often see discounts in place. In September 2024 a 50% reduction in cost to $100 was active.

Mapo Tapo: $1.7M in Funding

Sporting adventures booking platform

Mapo Tapo is an outdoor sports booking service which was founded in 2020 by Daniele Calvo, Antonio Cambise, Alessia Fontanari and Alfredo Lanzetta.

The platform allows the 100,000 registered users to plan sporting adventure trips around the world, such as climbing, hiking, mountaineering and skiing. A certified guide leads these activities, which vary in difficulty to cater to all experience levels.

The trip costs include a local guide, accommodation, essential equipment, food, transfers to the activity, and travel insurance. Before the event, a Whatsapp group is created to enable participants to communicate with local partners and travel companions. This helps to build a social and community feel which they believe is key due to the fact that the majority of users are solo travellers.

Mapo Tapo also provides software solutions for guides to manage their bookings and plan their trips, which comes with a monthly fee of around €50. In addition, the business generates revenue through commissions made on their bookings.

In September 2024, Mapo Tapo received €1.15 million (~$1.3M) in funding, bringing the total investment in the business to €1.5 million (~$1.7M). The money raised will be used to further develop the technology used by guides and grow the number of registered users on the service.

Whilst specific revenue figures haven’t been disclosed, Daniele did share late last year that the brand was on the verge of reaching €1 million in lifetime revenue.

Just Ask Layla: $3.3M in Funding

AI Travel Planning and Booking Platform

Just Ask Layla acts as a bridge between social media travel inspiration and the actual booking process that was founded in 2023 by Saad Saeed (co-founder of Flink) and Jeremy Jauncey (founder of Beautiful Destinations).

Visitors to the site and app can chat with AI bot Layla to discover destinations and plan a trip. Once a user is happy with Layla’s suggestions and itinerary, they’re then able to book hotels and flights directly, rather than having to visit another travel platform.

Customers can specify what kind of holiday they’d like to book based on factors such as price and popularity, they can then be inspired by short travel videos to discover where they’d like to go and what they can do there.

Just Ask Layla has also recently launched an Instagram Travel Planner which visitors can use to message the AI platform directly. They have over 400,000 followers on the platform currently.

As part of the initial launch, the business received €3 million (~$3.3M) in funding. Not only did this finance support the company in getting off the ground, it also added expertise to the platform with the founders of Booking.com and Skyscanner a part of the investment team.

RoomRaccoon: $3.9M in Annual Revenue

All-in-one hotel management software

RoomRaccoon is a platform designed to streamline the software used by independent hotels which was founded by Nadja Buckenberger and Tymen van Dyl following Nadja’s experiences as a hotelier in 2014.

The business operates as a full software solution for hotels, allowing them to manage bookings, payments, accounting, and back-of-house. The service also features website-building templates for customers.

RoomRaccoon features integrations with over 400 businesses to simplify operations for customers. These include the likes of Airbnb, Booking.com, Hotels.com and QuickBooks.

The service features four pricing tiers ranging from $226 to $593 per month, with higher subscription options including additional users and upgrade options.

To date, the platform has been used by more than 2,000 independent hotels in 50 different countries. To highlight their recent growth, last year alone they added 500 new hotel customers.

In 2019 RoomRaccoon posted revenue figures of $955,000 (~$1M), which has increased significantly to €3.6 million (~$3.9M) in their latest financial reports.

Jack's Flight Club: $4.1M in Annual Revenue

Cheap flight alert service

Jack’s Flight Club helps users find cheap flight deals and was founded in 2016 by Jack Sheldon and Phil Wintermantle.

The platform monitors flight cost fluctuations, searching for price drops and error fare listings on every route across all airlines. Members can be notified when cheap flights are available via the mobile app or subscribing to the email newsletter.

The free-to-use option provides customers with one or two emails per week containing travel deals, airline price drops, and cheap flight-finding tips. A premium membership option costs $5 per month and allows subscribers to receive ad-free newsletters and instant personalised error fare alerts departing from selected airports.

Jack’s Flight Club - of which Travelzoo purchased 60% ownership of in 2020 - is now used by 2.4 million members, up 26% from the 1.9 million users 12 months earlier.

The number of premium members rose by 19% last year, as the business reported annual revenue of $4.1 million, a significant increase from the $3.4 million generated the previous year.

Holdbar: $4.5M in Funding

Travel experience booking and management system

Holdbar is an experience booking system which was founded in 2023 by Lars Daniel Rasmussen and Lasse Kjær.

The platform for tour operators and experience providers has a software suite that enables businesses to sell and promote their offerings. Using the Holdbar dashboard customers can see an overview of their visitors and sales, offered experiences, confirmed bookings, availability calendar and more.

Holdbar provides a number of automated integrations to enable a seamless transaction for companies and their customers, and has been used by more than 200 businesses to date. There is a Free option for startups and small businesses, which accommodates 100 reservations with a 3.5% booking fee.

The Essential and Advanced tiers are designed for more established businesses and allow integrations and unlimited bookings. They’re priced at €49 (~$52) and €119 (~$127) per month, charging 2% and 1.8% booking fees respectively.

Holdbar recently announced that they’ve raised $3.5 million in seed funding, on top of the $1 million already received. This has taken the total amount of investment into the business to $4.5 million.

Seats.aero: $396K in Monthly Recurring Revenue

Search engine for travel availability

Seats.aero is a travel search engine which was founded by Ian Carroll in 2022, initially as a side project to help himself and others book flights quickly.

The business essentially helps travellers check the availability of flights and set up notifications for releases of specific seats, airlines, or prices.

It is free to use the service to search and set up alerts for flights two months in advance. However, there is a Pro subscription option costing $9.99 per month which allows one year of visibility and SMS alerts.

Due to the rate of growth of the business, Ian quickly began working full-time on the site as both revenue and pageviews continued to increase. This resulted in Seats.aero generating $1.5 million in annual revenue and acquiring almost one million new users in 2023.

This progress has continued, and Ian shared in October 2024 that Seats.aero is now surpassing $396,700 in monthly recurring revenue.

La Vida Golden Visas: $15M in Annual Revenue

Investment advice to gain citizenships and residencies

La Vida Golden Visas is a citizenship and residency investment consultancy which was founded by Paul Williams over 20 years ago.

The business supports customers with impartial advice on 18 worldwide programs to acquire citizenship, residency and immigration through investment within a particular country.

As demand for second residency statuses has risen, Golden Visa has issued advice on investment program comparisons to over 83,000 investors in more than 150 countries.

This has resulted in the business' continued income growth, with the latest set of accounts highlighting annual revenue of €14 million (~$15M). When you consider that three years prior La Vida Golden Visas generated an annual income of €7.5 million (~$8.1M), it shows just how far the platform has grown.

WeRoad: $39M in Funding

Organised group adventure tours

WeRoad organises small group travel tours all over the world. After being founded in 2017 the company has five European offices based in London, Berlin, London, Madrid, Milan and Paris.

The business pairs travellers based on age and interests, then guides them through more than 150 global destinations all year round.

Groups of up to 15 individuals are accompanied on their trips by one of the 2,500 travel coordinators to explore new countries and experiences. Customers are also able to join the WeRoad community to speak with other travellers doing the same thing.

In 2023 the business received an additional €18 million (~$19.5M) in funding, taking their total amount of investment to date to €36 million (~$39M). And whilst exact income figures haven't been released, they did confirm that they were on course to reach €30 million (~$33M) in annual revenue for the previous year.

Heidi: $48M in Annual Revenue

Skiing holiday booking platform

Heidi is an alternative to the traditional ski holiday booking services available which was founded in 2018 by brothers Alexander and Marcus Blunt.

The platform allows users to book flexible trips to over 400 ski resorts for two to 14 nights, that fly from the UK on various days rather than just on weekends like many existing providers. The service also allows multiple people to book a trip to the same destination whilst flying from different locations.

As customers can typically use the platform to find cheaper skiing holidays by providing flexible travel dates, the service will showcase the best value deals available. Ski hire, passes, and lessons can also be included in the booking.

In 2024, Heidi received £5.6 million (~$7.3M) in funding to expand its team, bringing the total amount raised to £5.9 million (~$7.7M).

In the last two years, annual revenue has grown from £8.8 million (~$11.5M) to £37 million (~$48M) as demand for the service has increased. Though, there are still plans to double the size of the business going forward.

Campspot: $72.2M in Annual Revenue

Find your next campspot

Founded in 2015, Campspot allows uses to book campgrounds, cabins, RV parks or even take part in a few days of glamping.

In 2024 they revealed a detailed breakdown of their revenue, sharing that the processed $1.9Bn in payments for the prior year, from 3.1M reservations.

Our understanding of their revenue breakdown is that they generated $72.2M in revenue, which includes $39M in add-on revenue and $19M in lock site revenue.

It's possible these additional numbers (of which there are more) are included in the $39M in add-on revenue figure, but they have all been labeled separately.

The $39M in add-on revenue is an increase of 23% year over year.

Travelzoo: $80M in Annual Revenue

Travel deals service

Travelzoo is a platform for users to find travel deals that was founded in 1998 by Ralph Bartel.

The website lets users save money on cruises, hotels, flights and vacation packages by highlighting the cheapest prices from over 5,000 travel suppliers.

Having initially begun with a $10,000 investment, the service now publishes personally reviewed recommendations and deals ending soon to 31 million members worldwide, including eight million app users.

Travelzoo has grown membership by 700,000 in the last 12 months, making this an appealing opportunity for suppliers looking to advertise their deals on the website.

In 2023, the business's annual revenue grew to $80.1 million, up from $67 million the previous year. To break this down further, $54.8 million of last year’s income came from their North American customers and $25.2 million from European users, with both segments showing YoY revenue growth in each quarter.

Hostelworld: $104M in Annual Revenue

Online travel agent with a focus on hostels

Hostelworld is an online booking and information platform for backpacker hostels which was founded in 1999.

The website enables visitors to reserve a space at one of 16,500 hostels in more than 180 countries. It also features city guides and entertainment information for specific areas. The business has recently partnered with tour guide company G Adventures to provide users with small group tours with local guides.

Hostelworld places a large emphasis on the community element for its customers as it enables travellers to connect and socialise with people visiting the same area or going on the same trips. They feel this is important due to the fact that over 60% of their customers are young solo travellers.

To date, the service has been used by more than eleven million travellers and is supported by a team of 230 employees. Its growing popularity is reflected in the fact that 6.5 million bookings were made on the platform last year, compared with 4.8 million the year before.

This increase in reservations resulted in annual revenue for 2023 rising by 33% YoY to €93.3M (~$104M), following a previous period of restricted worldwide travel.

Mr & Mrs Smith: $162M in Annual Revenue

memorable experience travel site

Mr & Mrs Smith showcases the world's best luxury hotels and was founded in 2003 by husband and wife team James and Tamara Lohan.

The website allows customers to book into more than 1,500 hotels and villas, whilst also offering destination advice and inspiration. New locations are added each month, all of which are personally approved.

Mr & Mrs Smith offers subscribers three membership levels with various additions including loyalty bonuses and discounts. The BlackSmith tier is free, with SilverSmith costing £10 (~$12) per month for 12 months. Finally, the GoldSmith subscription costs £40 (~$50) per month for an annual membership.

To date, the business has attracted more than one million members, which helps explain their 2022 revenue of £128 million (~$162M). This was an increase of £81 million (~$102M) from the previous year.

It will be intriguing to see how the business grows going forward as in June 2023 it was announced that Hyatt Hotels Corporation had completed the acquisition of Mr & Mrs Smith for £53 million (~$67M).

Engine: $221M in Funding

Corporate travel booking platform

Engine is a hire car, hotel, and flight booking platform for companies which was founded by Elia Wallen. Having initially launched Travelers Haven in 2008, he added Hotel Engine to the offering in 2015, before breaking away as its own company in 2018.

After Travelers Haven reached $100 million in revenue in 2022, it was sold to Blueground the following year. Fast-forward to 2024, and Hotel Engine expanded from only assisting with accommodation bookings and rebranded to Engine.

Today, the business supports corporate bookings for 700,000 travellers from over 40,000 companies. It provides deals across 750,000 hotels, 300 airlines, and 40 car rental companies, saving companies up to 60% off standard prices.

The platform also features an admin dashboard that provides insights into reservation information, loyalty rewards, travel analytics, trends, and reporting.

Engine takes a small cut from each booking, allowing it to offer a free Business Plus subscription, which includes most of the overall benefits. There is also a Business Premium tier costing $200 per month, which allows unlimited changes to bookings and the ability to make late cancellations on reservations.

In September 2024, Engine announced $140 million of new investment in the business, allowing it to expand into an all-in-one solution for business travel. This follows two previous funding rounds which brings the total amount of backing to date to $221 million.

Whilst we don’t have any specific revenue figures, we do know the business is growing at 70% YoY and is now valued at $2.1 billion.

On The Beach: $228M in Annual Revenue

worldwide holidays from the UK

On The Beach is an online travel agent for UK customers which was founded in 2004 by Simon Cooper.

The business allows customers to book hotels and holiday packages. Initially only offering short-haul packages for customers looking to travel within Europe, it later increased holidaymakers' options by including long-haul holidays from the UK to destinations all over the world.

The website received over 90 million visits in 2023 for those looking to book trips and receive recommendations for destinations, hotels, restaurants and holiday tips.

Last year the business supported customers with 532,000 travel bookings, allowing On The Beach to surpass £1 billion in total revenue. The 2023 annual revenue reached £170.2 million (~$228M), which is a solid increase on the £143 million (~$191M) and £20.9 million (~$28M) hit in the previous two years.

Profits for last year were £12.9 million (~$17.2M), 486% up on the previous year. The brand has also started the new financial year strongly, with operating revenue 26% up on the YoY figure as of December 2023.

Lastminute.com: $358M in Annual Revenue

showcasing late booking travel deals

lastminute.com is a platform for users to book late travel deals which was founded in 1998 by Martha Lane Fox and Brent Hoberman.

The website allows customers to reserve flights, hotels, or a combination of both, as well as city breaks, holidays, train tickets, and even spa trips.

Visitors to the site can often save money on their bookings by travelling on short notice with one of the 450+ airlines and 2.5 million hotels that lastminute.com has partnered with. A showcase of popular destinations and holiday types also provides users with last-minute trip ideas.

In 2023, the business reported revenue of €321.3 million (~$358M), a 6% increase from the previous year. This income also saw gross profits rise 20% year over year to €126.4 million (~$141M).

Whilst revenue of €164.6 million (~$ $183.5M) for the first half of 2024 is down 9% from H1 2023, the company has still reached a gross profit of €70.2 million (~$78M) for the period, which is up 2% from last year’s first-half figure.

Klook: $410M in Funding

booking platform for hotels and attractions

Klook is a platform which helps customers with their travel requirements and was founded in 2014 by Bernie Xiong, Eric Gnock and Ethan Lin.

As well as offering unique experiences and tours, the website provides discounted tickets to many attractions. They’ve partnered with various destinations such as Disneyland Paris, and provide booking capabilities to almost 500,000 hotels and destinations.

Klook has also adopted AI solutions into their business to aid users in the form of a customer support chatbot and automated translations on the website.

Last year the business raised $210 million in funding, following on from a previous round of $200 million two years earlier.

Whilst the brand hasn’t released any specific revenue figures, they did disclose that they are now profitable, having experienced a 300% growth since 2019. This is in part due to the fact they supported with a gross booking value of $3 billion in 2023.

Trivago: $522M in Annual Revenue

Hotel price comparison search engine

trivago operates as a hotel search engine which was founded in 2005 by Rolf Schrömgens, Malte Siewert, Stephan Stubner and Peter Vinnemeier.

The site's users can look for apartments, hotels, and vacation rentals worldwide, each featuring reviews and photos. They can then compare the prices against hundreds of travel sites to find the cheapest option and save up to 40%.

Visitors can search for places to stay in a specific city or be guided by the top-rated hotels and popular destinations showcased on the platform. The website currently features more than five million accommodation options in over 190 countries.

The website is primarily monetised by referral revenue, meaning a commission is earned when a user clicks to make a reservation at one of these locations.

In 2023, trivago reported annual revenue of €485 million (~$522M), a decrease of 9% from the previous years income of €535 million. Of this €485M earnings, €476.8 million came directly from referral revenues, showing just how significant this income stream is compared to other avenues such as advertising.

HotelPlanner: $685M in Revenue for 2023

Hotel Booking and discount offers

HotelPlanner was founded by Tim Hentschel and John Prince in 2003, when Tim was just 24 years old.

The hotel reservations platform almost went public a few years ago via a SPAC with Reversations.com and Astrea. The combined companies would have had annual revenue of approximately $170M in 2022.

HotelPlanner has since blown past those numbers, with Travel weekly reporting ¹ they generated $685M in 2023 sales.

While the numbers are impressive, it's imperative to keep in mind that margins in this business are likely very slim, and profit is a different story.

Viator: $737M in Annual Revenue

Travel destination and experience marketplace

Viator is a travel experience booking platform which was founded in 1995 by Rod Cuthbert.

The website allows visitors to browse and book activities such as tours, day trips, and lesser-known attractions. It also provides event and destination inspiration - alongside genuine user reviews - for anyone looking for ideas on where to go and what to do.

There are over 345,000 reservation options to choose from, which can be filtered down by interests, such as arts, food and drink, nature, outdoor activities, etc. These experiences can be booked in cities worldwide, such as London, New York, Paris, and Rome.

Viator was sold to The Tripadvisor Group for $200 million in 2014, and although the direction of the business has changed slightly, there’s no questioning the trajectory of their revenue.

In 2023 Viator reported $737 million in annual revenue. This represented a 49% uplift on the previous years income figure of $493 million.

MakeMyTrip: $782M in Annual Revenue

Online Indian Travel Platform

MakeMyTrip is a travel website with a focus on Indian journeys which was founded in 2000 by Deep Kalra.

The business was initially set up to support customers travelling from the US to India. Five years later, the brand included Indian domestic travel within its offering. Fast-forward to 2024, and MakeMyTrip now accommodates journeys from India to 2,000 cities worldwide.

Visitors to the website can search for and book flights, hotels, holiday packages, trains, and buses for personal or corporate travel. The site also features handpicked holiday collections and suggestions for lesser-known destinations.

For the 2024 fiscal year, MakeMyTrip generated $782.5 million in revenue, a 32% increase from the $593 million reached a year earlier. This was in part due to a 36% growth in flight bookings and a 29% rise in hotel reservations on the platform.

Things are already looking positive for the current financial year, with the first half of 2025 revenue showing an revenue increase of 27% on the same period last year.

Tripadvisor: $1B in Annual Revenue

Review-based travel and dining recommendations

Tripadvisor is a platform to help users plan trips and vacations which was founded in 2000 by Stephen Kaufer, Thomas Palka, Nick Shanny and Langley Steinert.

The website features advice, information and recommendations in the form of over one billion community member reviews on more than eight million attractions, hotels and restaurants. Essentially, it guides site visitors on where to go and what to do.

Tripadvisor initially began monetising the website through banner ads placed on the homepage and within the site’s content. They then introduced a CPC model where they would charge hotels each time a user booked a room through their platform. However, things really took off for the business when users began posting their own reviews on the site, making it the hugely popular resource it is today.

In what was a record year of income for the brand, Tripadvisor generated just over $1 billion in annual revenue in 2023. This was a 7% increase on the $966 million reached the previous year.

It’s interesting to note - at least to us - that around 64% of this revenue comes hotel bookings, 17% from experience and dining reservations and 14% from advertising. With all three avenues seeing year on year growth in income for the business.

Trip.com: Q3 2024 Revenue of $2.26Bn

Flight, hotel and car rental booking platform

With cheap options for booking flights, trains, hotels, cars and tours, Trip.com seemingly covers it all.

Publicly-listed on the NASDAQ exchange with the ticker $TRIP, their listing (2003) came just four years after being founded (1999). In 2021, they were also listed on HKEX.

Trip.com is not the only site in their portfolio, as they're also behind brands like Skyscanner, Ctrip and Qunar.

For quarter three of 2024 they reported revenue of $2.26Bn, a 16% increase over the prior year.