Alaska Airlines is increasing its lounge membership costs for 2024 and tightening restrictions in the process.
20.10.2023 - 22:21 / skift.com / Justin Dawes / Jason Calacanis
Five travel tech startups announced fundraises of more than $57 million this week.
>>Anyplace, a short-term rental company geared toward remote workers, has raised $10.3 million in series B funding. Of the total, $8.3 million was raised as equity, and the other $2 million was debt secured from Silicon Valley Bank.
The round was led by Launch Fund and its founder, Jason Calacanis, with support from CapitalX, Gaingels, Riverside Ventures, Potluck Ventures, MSIVC, FreakOut Shinsei Fund, Delight Ventures, and several individual investors.
Anyplace has now raised a total of $18 million.
The San Francisco-based startup said it offers bookings in fully furnished apartments for at least 30 days. The rentals come with setups for remote work that include high-speed internet.
The startup has properties in four cities — San Francisco, New York City, Los Angeles, and San Diego — with plans to expand in the U.S. yet this year. Anyplace partners with real estate companies Greystar, Avalon Bay, and UDR.
>>Lanes & Planes, a platform for corporate travel and expense management, has raised $35 million in series B funding. It was led by Smash Capital, with support from Battery Ventures, Coparion, DN Capital, and AllIron.
The company has now raised $45 million, according to Crunchbase.
Munich-based Lanes & Planes said its platform can handle travel booking, approvals, and expense management, and it can integrate into clients’ existing software systems.
The company said revenue has grown more than nine times since it was founded in 2022.
Brad Twohig, managing partner of Smash Capital, said in a statement that he expects business travel to top pre-pandemic levels next year, but the sector of travel booking is generally “dysfunctional and inefficient.”
Daniel Nolte, co-founder of Lanes & Planes, in a statement: “We constantly get feedback, especially from our new customers, on how Lanes & Planes has made them more efficient, in terms of money saved, but also in the time they save from making internal administrative tasks less painful and smoother.”
>>It’s Good, a social media app for restaurant reviews co-founded by John Legend, has raised $5 million in pre-seed funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners.
(See Skift’s story.)
>>Apartool, a platform for corporate housing, has raised €5.5 million ($5.8 million) in a series A funding round.
It was led by Roch Ventures and Barlon Capital, with support from Finaves, Telegraph Hill Capital, Iberis Capital, and others.
Barcelona-based Apartool said it provides furnished apartments for business travelers who are on trips for more than two weeks. Booking is accessible to corporations and corporate travel agencies.
Its clients have primarily been in sectors including
Alaska Airlines is increasing its lounge membership costs for 2024 and tightening restrictions in the process.
Through a variety of fundraising efforts including mileage donations and collection boxes from customers and employees in Japan and throughout the U.S. including Hawaii and the mainland, Japan Airlines raised over $132,000 to support relief and recovery efforts for communities affected by the devastating Maui wildfires that occurred in August 2023. The airline held a check presentation ceremony to the Hawaii Community Foundation on November 2 at the Governor’s Ceremony Room at the Hawaii State Capitol building.
AccorInvest, a hotel owner-operator company that global hotel group Accor created in 2017, is seeing a rising share of its outstanding debt owned by one player, the hedge fund Sculptor, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday.
An Italian judge has ordered the seizure of 779.5 million euros ($836.40 million) from short-term rentals platform Airbnb’s Ireland unit for alleged tax evasion, Milan prosecutors’ office said on Monday.
My father had a straightforward answer for why he moved 1,000 miles south to Florida from his hometown of Dayton, Ohio.
Five travel tech startups have announced fundraises this week totaling more than $144 million.
On a crispy late-September morning under blue skies, the grassy hills of Custer State Park are surely the last place you’d ever expect to find thousands of fans screaming and hollering for their favorite team, whether members be of the bipedal or four-legged sort. With dozens of cowboys and cowgirls herding some 1,400-1,500 grunting and bellowing bison through the verdant terrain and into corrals, South Dakota’s annual Buffalo Roundup has become a huge and thrilling spectator event.
Airbnb’s recent quarter was its most profitable ever and also the best in terms of revenue, according to a shareholder letter the company released Wednesday.
As we approach the end of the year, venture capitalists are spilling some of that dry powder on real estate-tech firms.
Are you booked on a Royal Caribbean cruise this fall? Brace yourself for higher daily fees.
Saudi Arabia’s super-city of Neom has created its own investment fund. The Neom Investment Fund will largely focus on mergers and acquisitions and venture capital in tech startups, said the organization. The Neom Investment Fund will also work with global organizations through joint ventures to boost its many sectors, including travel and tourism.
I've lived in Philadelphia my whole life, so I've watched plenty of tourists come and go.