4 ms·

MyVR (YC W12) raises $1.4M to attack the vacation rental industry

53 points by jonmurray 14y ago

onedev 14y ago
Congrats, but I cannot forgive the terrible name.
- truebecomefalse 14y ago
  Agreed. I thought they were some sort of virtual reality company.
  - priley 14y ago
    Hmm.. I think Phil was (rightfully) being sarcastic about the critizism over a short 4-letter domain. Airbnb was originally Airbedandbreakfast.com. Great launch guys! I'll certainly use it for my summer cabin.
- jonmurray 14y ago
  ha! fair enough. well, at least we didn't waste a ton of time on it???
- buro9 14y ago
  Branding is terrible, especially given that vacation is an extremely American term and they mention the European market. In Europe people have rented out holiday homes for as long as I know. There are some big incumbents in the market, this one for example: http://www.novasol.co.uk/ http://www.novasol.co.uk/ Novasol specialise in the Germanic, Scandinavian and Eastern European. The problem myvr will have isn't just persuading advertisers that they can deliver customers (margins are slim and they can only afford to advertise in one place), but also to convince holidaymakers that the risk is virtually non-existent. That's one of the things the incumbents work hard on, visiting every property each year and auditing it to ensure that it is as advertised and hasn't dropped in standard, and that all of the safety things (contracts, insurance) are in place.
  - jonmurray 14y ago
    Hi buro9- thanks for the discussion. We're primarily focused on the US & Canada right now, though we do have customers elsewhere. One distinction to make is that we're not like the "incumbents" you mention. We're more like property management software (or "property marketing" might be closer). We're not trying to build a destination site and attract renters to it. Our goal is to make it easier for an owner to market across these types of places. Tactically speaking, we go out and vertically integrate anywhere meaningful to vacation rental marketing, and allow an owner to upload their home info once and then simply click to opt into whatever channels they want. They get to manage it all in one place and everything stays in sync (no more juggling multiple calendars, rate tables, etc). So, think of us like the DSP's that emerged to help advertisers deal with all the various ad networks that popped up. It's a pain in the ass to go integrate with all of them. For now, we're launching with the major listing sites (similar to the incumbents you mention) in the US. We also provide the other several other helpful marketing tools - their own website, their own Facebook Page (a great 'CRM' tool, if you will), auto-responders, Craigslist ad poster, etc... I think that's quite different than what the incumbents are doing... They're a vertical. We'll never aim to be a vertical.
    - buro9 14y ago
      That's a really clear explanation. Most of the incumbents I know of in Europe are effectively paid-for directory businesses that in essence provide listings (and then booking, and all of the dull contractual stuff). My question would be: How will you be able to get your listings inserted into their databases if the barrier to being in their database is a payment? Is your aim to become a re-seller for the existing sites? So you'd be a one-stop-shop for getting your holiday home listed in the places most likely to convert. Or more that you hope to encourage the incumbents to take your feed through other enticements (such as being able to take a commission on properties that would normally have been listed elsewhere)?
      - jonmurray 14y ago
        "Is your aim to become a re-seller for the existing sites? So you'd be a one-stop-shop for getting your holiday home listed in the places most likely to convert." Yep, that's it exactly. The selling point to them is that we bring them new customers. We're seeing that owners aren't marketing as they should because everything they do is incremental work and upkeep. If we can make launching into a new channel (or listing site) as easy as a click, and centralize the management of it all, we believe owners will increase their marketing. It helps that we can also bring large quantities to the listing sites, so that we can also get discounts for our owners (a further incentive to increase their marketing).
- phil 14y ago
  Yeah, they totally picked the wrong 4-letter domain.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
tstegart 14y ago
Congrats guys!
vizzah 14y ago
Looks like 'VR' in relation to 'vacation rentals' is actually more widely used than it seems at first. VRBO.com from Homeaway (since 1996). So perhaps a valid choice, albeit not so customer friendly.
- jonmurray 14y ago
  I do think most VR owners get it...

53 points by jonmurray 14y ago

onedev 14y ago

Congrats, but I cannot forgive the terrible name.

truebecomefalse 14y ago
Agreed. I thought they were some sort of virtual reality company.
- priley 14y ago
  Hmm.. I think Phil was (rightfully) being sarcastic about the critizism over a short 4-letter domain. Airbnb was originally Airbedandbreakfast.com. Great launch guys! I'll certainly use it for my summer cabin.
jonmurray 14y ago
ha! fair enough. well, at least we didn't waste a ton of time on it???
buro9 14y ago
Branding is terrible, especially given that vacation is an extremely American term and they mention the European market. In Europe people have rented out holiday homes for as long as I know. There are some big incumbents in the market, this one for example: http://www.novasol.co.uk/ http://www.novasol.co.uk/ Novasol specialise in the Germanic, Scandinavian and Eastern European. The problem myvr will have isn't just persuading advertisers that they can deliver customers (margins are slim and they can only afford to advertise in one place), but also to convince holidaymakers that the risk is virtually non-existent. That's one of the things the incumbents work hard on, visiting every property each year and auditing it to ensure that it is as advertised and hasn't dropped in standard, and that all of the safety things (contracts, insurance) are in place.
- jonmurray 14y ago
  Hi buro9- thanks for the discussion. We're primarily focused on the US & Canada right now, though we do have customers elsewhere. One distinction to make is that we're not like the "incumbents" you mention. We're more like property management software (or "property marketing" might be closer). We're not trying to build a destination site and attract renters to it. Our goal is to make it easier for an owner to market across these types of places. Tactically speaking, we go out and vertically integrate anywhere meaningful to vacation rental marketing, and allow an owner to upload their home info once and then simply click to opt into whatever channels they want. They get to manage it all in one place and everything stays in sync (no more juggling multiple calendars, rate tables, etc). So, think of us like the DSP's that emerged to help advertisers deal with all the various ad networks that popped up. It's a pain in the ass to go integrate with all of them. For now, we're launching with the major listing sites (similar to the incumbents you mention) in the US. We also provide the other several other helpful marketing tools - their own website, their own Facebook Page (a great 'CRM' tool, if you will), auto-responders, Craigslist ad poster, etc... I think that's quite different than what the incumbents are doing... They're a vertical. We'll never aim to be a vertical.
  - buro9 14y ago
    That's a really clear explanation. Most of the incumbents I know of in Europe are effectively paid-for directory businesses that in essence provide listings (and then booking, and all of the dull contractual stuff). My question would be: How will you be able to get your listings inserted into their databases if the barrier to being in their database is a payment? Is your aim to become a re-seller for the existing sites? So you'd be a one-stop-shop for getting your holiday home listed in the places most likely to convert. Or more that you hope to encourage the incumbents to take your feed through other enticements (such as being able to take a commission on properties that would normally have been listed elsewhere)?
    - jonmurray 14y ago
      "Is your aim to become a re-seller for the existing sites? So you'd be a one-stop-shop for getting your holiday home listed in the places most likely to convert." Yep, that's it exactly. The selling point to them is that we bring them new customers. We're seeing that owners aren't marketing as they should because everything they do is incremental work and upkeep. If we can make launching into a new channel (or listing site) as easy as a click, and centralize the management of it all, we believe owners will increase their marketing. It helps that we can also bring large quantities to the listing sites, so that we can also get discounts for our owners (a further incentive to increase their marketing).
phil 14y ago
Yeah, they totally picked the wrong 4-letter domain.

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

tstegart 14y ago

Congrats guys!

vizzah 14y ago

Looks like 'VR' in relation to 'vacation rentals' is actually more widely used than it seems at first. VRBO.com from Homeaway (since 1996). So perhaps a valid choice, albeit not so customer friendly.

jonmurray 14y ago
I do think most VR owners get it...