10 Successful Online Travel Businesses (With Revenue Numbers)

1. Just Ask Layla
2. Holdbar
3. WeRoad
4. Klook
5. Nomads.com
6. Seats.aero
7. RoomRaccoon
8. La Vida Golden Visas
9. Heidi
10. Mr & Mrs Smith

Just Ask Layla: $3.2M in Funding

AI Travel Planner, Guide and Booking Platform

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

Visitors to the site and app can chat with AI bot Layla to discover destinations, plan a trip and then book both flights and hotels.

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.

Once a user is happy with Layla’s suggestions and itinerary, they’re then able to book directly, rather than having to visit another travel platform.

Just Ask Layla has also recently launched an Instagram Travel Planner which visitors can use to message the AI platform directly. They have over 420,000 followers on the platform currently.

As part of the initial launch, the business received €3 million (~$3.2M) in funding. Not only did this finance support the company in getting off the ground, it also added great expertise to the platform with the founders of Booking.com and Skyscanner a part of the investment team.

Holdbar: $4.5M in Funding

Travel experience booking and management system

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

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 easily see an overview of their visitors and sales, offered experiences, confirmed bookings, availability calendar, gift card transactions 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 has recently announced that they’ve raised $3.5 million in seed funding, adding to the $1 million already received. This has taken the total amount of investment into the business to $4.5 million.

WeRoad: $39M in Funding

Organised adventure group travel service

WeRoad was founded 2017 to organise small group travel tours all over the world. The company has five European offices based in London, Berlin, Madrid, France and Milan.

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

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 community to speak with other travellers doing the same thing.

In 2023 WeRoad received an additional €18 million (~$19.5M) in funding, taking their total to €36 million (~$39M) to date. And whilst exact income figures have been released, they did confirm that they were on course to reach €30 million (~$33M) in annual revenue for 2022.

Klook: $410M in Funding

Travel booking platform for hotels and attractions

Klook was founded in 2014 by Bernie Xiong, Eric Gnock and Ethan Lin to help customers with their travel requirements.

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 attractions.

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.

Klook raised $210 million in funding in 2023, following on from a previous round of $200 million in 2021.

Whilst the business 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.

Nomads.com: $57K in Monthly Revenue

Platform showcasing the best places for location-independent workers

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

The website shares destinations to relocate 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 50,000 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 even find coworking spaces.

The cost of access to the network when full price is $218 for a lifetime membership, though we can often see discounts in place. In February 2024 a 50% reduction in cost to $109 was in place.

The business has maintained a healthy revenue stream, with the platform currently generating $57,000 per month. Though, we have seen this income as high as $55,000 per month in 2022.

Seats.aero: $1.5M in Annual Revenue

Search engine for travel availability with instant results

Seats.aero was founded by Ian Carroll in 2022 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 alerts 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. In 2023 Seats.aero achieved $1.5 million in annual revenue and acquired almost one million new users.

RoomRaccoon: $3.9M in Annual Revenue

All-in-one hotel management software

RoomRaccoon was founded by Nadja Buckenberger and Tymen van Dyl to streamline software for independent hotels 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 streamline 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 rate of growth, in 2023 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.

La Vida Golden Visas: $15M in Annual Revenue

Investment advice for those looking to gain citizenships and residencies

Paul Williams founded La Vida Golden Visas over twenty years ago as a citizenship and residency investment consultancy.

The business supports investors 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's continued growth in income, with the latest set of accounts highlighting annual revenue of €14 million (~$15M).

When you consider that in 2020, La Vida Golden Visas generated an annual income of €7.5 million (~$8.1M), it shows just how far the platform has grown.

Heidi: $48M in Annual Revenue

Skiing holiday booking platform

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

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.

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.

Mr & Mrs Smith: $162M in Annual Revenue

A memorable experience travel site featuring personally approved destinations

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

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 a year.

To date, the business 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).