Startups to Watch

Zonder.com		Added 4/02/2008
	Founder(s): Bob Barnes	Founded: 2005
	Industry: Internet - Travel	City: Salt Lake City

Company Description:

Zonder was the first vacation home rental company to offer accurate, real-time availability and instant online bookings. Only Zonder gives consumers and partners the necessary tools to efficiently search through tens of thousands of vacation home rentals and narrow their results using a variety of criteria. In addition, Zonder offers partners a powerful, flexible technology platform that makes it simple to add vacation rentals to their product offerings. Founded by search industry veterans, it is the technology behind Zonder that enables its powerful search, filtering and real-time booking capabilities.

Background:

Zonder Founder and CEO Bob Barnes wanted to rent a beach house in Costa Rica. Bob spent 5 nights and over 20 hours searching the Web for the perfect vacation home rental that fit his requirements. He contacted dozens of owners about pricing, availability, and to learn more about the property because the information online was so sparse and unreliable.

After experiencing the online vacation rental process firsthand (numerous fragmented Web sites with disorganized results requiring him to manually contact homeowners), Bob finally abandoned his hopes of booking a private beach house in Costa Rica and booked a hotel instead. Once in Costa Rica, he came upon a multitude of beachfront homes that would have been perfect if he had a simple way to find and book them. At that moment, Bob decided to develop an easier way to find and book online vacation home rentals and started Zonder in early 2005. Zonder was the first online site to offer real-time vacation rental homes, villas and cabins.

Traction:

Thousands of private homes, condos, cabins and villas all over North America, Central America and the Caribbean can be found and booked instantly through Zonder.com.

Employees:

Awards/Competitions Won:

N/A

Business Model:

Zonder works with professional property management companies and its own network of preferred home owners. With Zonder’s performance-based model, bookings are commissionable and there is no charge to the property owner unless a property is booked. Zonder provides property management companies with instant access to thousands of Zonder customers through a variety of search engines and travel Web sites. Additionally, Zonder extends the company’s network by providing access to over 70,000 travel agents worldwide through the Global Distribution System (“GDS”). Zonder’s technology platform automatically syncs with the property management company’s scheduling system so partners do not have to manually update their availability information. Zonder’s system is instantly updated when a booking occurs from either the management company or through any Zonder partners.

Revenue:

Private

Projected Revenue (2008):

Private

Major Customers:

Private

Recent Buzz:

Smarter Travel – "Zonder - Think of it as the Expedia, Orbitz, or Travelocity of vacation rentals."

Los Angeles Times – "Zonder – a new, easy vacation rental website"

Frommer’s – "The rental of vacation homes continues to boom"

Investment Needs:

Private