There are dozens of websites available for helping travelers find hotels and cabin rentals. However, 2nd Address (previously known as HomeSuite) distinguishes itself by helping business travelers find housing beyond 30 days. Recently, 2nd Address announced it raised $10 million in funding to expand its home options and develop better tools for hosts to manage their homes. Including this round, 2nd Address had raised $42 million thus far.
The $10 million round of funding was led by GV — which is a venture capital investment arm of Google’s parent company Alphabet. Foundation Capital, Amicus Capital, and Pierre Lamond also participated in that round.
2nd Address was founded by David Adams and the company is led by CEO Chung-Man Tam. Currently, 2nd Address covers the Bay Area, Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago and Washington, DC according to TechCrunch. And the company said that property on its platform ends up about 40% cheaper on a per night basis compared to a business or extended stay hotel. And the company is planning to extend this model to seventeen more markets in 2019.
“We’ve seen a big change in the way people travel for business. They want the same experience they have as consumers,” said Man Tam. “There have been many platforms built for consumers, but not specifically for business travel.”
2nd Address currently works with 650 hosts covering about 3,200 listings. And some of the company’s customers include Google, SAP, Deloitte, KLM and Stanford University, and Northwestern University.
When 2nd Address was known as HomeSuite, it was created as a quick way of finding and securing short-term rentals for users moving to new cities. And Homesuite handled the administrative end of that process including the paperwork. Then the company pivoted to business travelers in 2017 and focused on helping people find places to stay between 30 days and 9 months.
One of the biggest advantages of targeting business travelers is that they are more likely to be well-behaved than groups of people who are looking for a quick getaway. And another advantage that 2nd Address has over rivals like Airbnb is that if a guest searches for a property to stay in for a month and someone booked one night during that time, it would not be displayed as available. 2nd Address circumvents this issue by displaying properties that are available. 2nd Address still has plenty of room to grow since it is only available in a small number of cities and I know a number of people that could benefit from a service like this in more rural areas rather than bigger cities.
“We saw an acute shortage of vendors for monthly stays overall, but specifically also for business people,” said Foundation general partner Paul Holland via TechCrunch. “2nd Address not only proved the concept but are in a perfect position to take the market. Yes, rising tides lift all boats, including Airbnb, but it’s a very large opportunity.” Holland also pointed out that some of 2nd Address’ rivals are using the company’s backend and listings for their own platforms.
And GV partner Joe Kraus said that 2nd Address has an $18 billion opportunity in the U.S. by helping working professionals find places to stay. “People have evolved far beyond the stereotypical corporate housing and now expect a more personal, comfortable place to spend their time when they’re not working,” explained Kraus.
