A business that rents out properties via Airbnb on behalf of landlords has raised another £1.75 million from investors, taking its total raised since 2016 to £12 million.

GuestReady, which calls itself as a ‘hospitality company’ is a middleman between landlords, their properties and corporate and holiday short-let renters.

Now in its seventh year and based in London it operates within 30 cities across the world including several in the UK but also Lisbon, Dubai and Paris.

It relieves landlords of almost all property management duties including advertising their homes on Airbnb and other sites including its own direct booking website as well as managing furniture and furnishings, doing changeovers and repairs and maintenance.

6,000 properties

The firm has 6,000 homes under management via its landlord-facing online platform, RentalReady, which gives property owners details on bookings and revenue.

GuestReady charges landlords 26% of gross revenue for its full property management suite and around £20 a month to use its RentalReady platform.

Investors have flocked to its latest money raising effort on Seedrs, which is currently 173% over subscribed, helped by buoyant results including a 75% occupancy level on average and, last year, gross margins of 56% and an operating margin of 40%.

The company struggled during the pandemic when it saw bookings drop by 80% and its turnover has only recently picked up again. It has taken rental bookings worth £160 million since it launched.

This new £2 million investment raise is its fifth, taking the total taken from smaller investors to run its operation to £14 million. But Co-founder and CEO Alex Limpert (main picture), in his pitch to investors for the latest round, admits that the company has yet to reach profitability, but says that goal is not far away.