Hotel booking platform Safara raises $14M, acquires rival Skipper

Doug Schuessler has always been a founder. This passion, which has been with him since childhood, saw him launch two startups, move to San Francisco, and take a job at Square to see what a “real rocket shop looked like.” He later became chief revenue officer at restaurant booking platform Resy, before becoming a founder once again.

After Resy sold to AMEX, Schuessler said he started studying the hospitality technology industry more and found himself hooked on hotels.

“Independent hotels really need the help,” he told TechCrunch.

He said decades ago most of the hotels in the country were independently owned, but hotel chains have started to buy up these smaller properties, leaving the remaining independent hotels with more competition. 

Schuessler and his co-founder, Cody Rose, who also worked at Resy, decided to create Safara, a business that lets customers book nearly every hotel in the world — whether it’s a chain or independent.

The list is curated from a mix of consumer data and community-sourced recommendations. There is also a rewards program, that provides cash back to those who book through the platform which can be applied to the next trip. Independent hotels using Safara can access it commission-free, though technically any hotel can plug into the platform.

“Think of it as another direct challenge alongside their website,” Schuessler continued. “We then connect these two products to elevate the guest experience by enabling direct web guests who book directly on the hotel’s site to manage that reservation in the Safara app.” 

Today, Safara announces an undisclosed led by Sequoia and Defy.vc, as well as the acquisition of the company Skipper, an online booking engine used by independent hotels. With the additional funding, Safara has raised $14 million in funding to date.

The Safara and Skipper team came together after being introduced by a mutual investor who felt the companies had a similar outlook on the hospitality space. The Skipper co-founders will join Safara in some capacity. 

“We actually made a pass at the deal earlier in the year,” Schuessler said. But the stars eventually aligned. “Both companies have a much better chance at achieving the shared vision together than they do apart.” 

Safara aims to be different from others on the market by offering software solutions to hotels and products that serve the consumer on their side, too.

“The magic is going to come in 2025 when we connect these two products more deeply to create new experiences for both hotels and guests,” Schuessler, who is the company’s CEO, said. 

Schuessler met his investors through warm introductions, he said. Alfred Lin, a partner at Sequoia, was the company’s first major believer but passed the first time around.

“I remember him saying, ‘Maybe we can become partners in the future,’ and at the time I thought that was BS, but it turned out to be the truth,” Schuessler said. He met Brian Rothenberg, a partner at Defy.vc, through the AngelTrack network, and said the two immediately hit it off. 

“He is extremely supportive through good and bad and we tend to see the world through a very similar lens,” he continued. 

Safara will use the fresh capital to scale product development and the number of hotels using its product. 

“Our focus of 2025 and beyond is really to empower independent hotels with the same technology and network advances as chain hotels,” Schuessler said. “If we get this right, not only do we help these hotels succeed, but the types of experiences that will unlock for guests are things that frankly don’t exist right now. And if we accomplish both of those things, the sky is the limit for Safara as a company.”