• The Guild

  Participated · Series B · Jan 2020

  The Guild converts apartments into comfortable short-term accommodations for business and other travelers. The company operates 565 units with another 235 in the final stages of development and currently serves six cities: Austin, Cincinnati, Dallas, Denver, Miami and Nashville. It runs a corporate sales team that works with companies like McKinsey, Google and Whole Foods and partners with travel platforms including Concur, Airbnb and Expedia. The Guild emphasizes personal, hospitality-style touches (for example adding a Christmas tree for a temporarily displaced family) to differentiate from competitors such as Lyric, Domio and Sonder. It reported $10 million in revenue in 2018, generated more than $20 million in 2019, and expected 100% growth in 2020. The company plans to expand into six more cities over the next 12 to 24 months and says investment payback for a unit is traditionally within 12 months. The Guild partners with building owners to operate hotel accommodations in commercially-zoned or mixed-use buildings, offering traditional hotel rooms and apartment-style studio, 1BR and 2BR units. The company differentiates with technology such as digital check-in, keyless entry, and integrations that let guests quickly order food from delivery services, while retaining staffed front desks for human interaction. Based in Austin, The Guild currently has a handful of properties in Austin and Dallas and leases 290 units across five markets. The startup is expanding into Miami, Cincinnati and Denver and expects to operate 1,000 units across up to 10 markets by the end of next year. Financially, The Guild launched with $9 million in funding led by Maveron with participation from Convivialite Ventures and Corigin Ventures, and the company is open to revenue-share and other financing structures in the future. The Guild functions as both the brand and operator, emphasizes employee welfare—every employee receives health insurance and equity—and uses vendors for housekeeping that are paid above-market rates.

No current team members are available.