Inspirato raises $17.5 Million for Luxury Vacation

Inspirato, the start-up provider of luxury vacations, has recently announced the end of a new round of funding which has brought the company the amount of $17.5 million. This funding round has been led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, along with Access Venture Partners, and the New York Yankees All-Star First Baseman, Mark Teixeira.

The company has been launched in the month of January 2011 and it is different from the other similar companies on the market due to the fact that it gives members all of the luxury of a timeshare, without the hassle of having an extra mortgage to deal with. This type of deal is incredibly attractive to users and this justifies the incredible success Inspirato has had by now. The system put into use by Inspirato obliges members to pay a one-time initiation fee of $15,000 and an annual renewal fee of $2,500. Although this may seem much, it is now if we consider the services, which are top class. For this amount of money, Inspirato obtain significant reduced nightly rates for its clients for any of the top 85 properties Inspirato has in its portfolio. These reductions have no restrictions to usage; they can be used even during the peak travel periods just as well as they can use them during the black-out periods.

In order to manage to offer these deals, Inspirato actually enters into long-term leases with the owners of those specific properties. By lending those properties long-term, Ispirato actually manages to eliminate the brokers’ fees, which allows them to decrease their expenses. Moreover, by signing lending contracts of over 3 years with the owners of those properties, Inspirato manages to have complete control over those properties and thus offer special prices.

At the moment, Inspirato has in its portfolio properties in a number of over 25 locations, including London, Paris, Tuscany, Ecuador, Mexico, the Bahamas, Kenya and the United States. All these properties summarize a total amount of over $100 million as we are speaking only about luxury vacation rentals.

Users are very fond of this idea and the most accurate proof is the fact that the company has already sold over 900 memberships up to now and already has a positive cash flow. The feedback is also good, as the actual members have reported a degree of satisfaction of 9.4 out of a 10 point scale.

Ted Schlein, the KPCB partner, stated the following: “We believe that Inspirato is rapidly becoming the standard for luxury vacations in homes. Offering an affordable, fully curated member experience from one vacation to the next distinguishes Inspirato from other luxury vacation rental options.” As a result to this funding round, Schlein is going to join the board of directors at Inspirato.

The company intends to use the money raised in this funding round in order to add more properties to its portfolio. The fact is that this type of business has turned out to be rather successful at this moment, as there are other entrepreneurs who have decided to invest in this field of activity as well.