ResortPass, Backed by Jessica Alba and Gwyneth Paltrow, Lands $26 Million So You Can Take a Day Vacation • TechCrunch

Have you ever looked longingly at the website of a fancy hotel or resort and thought, “Man, I wish I could hang out there.”

Well, thanks to the start Resort Passit might not be as out of reach as you think.

The six-year-old company offers people the ability to purchase day passes at more than 900 hotels and resorts — think Ritz Carlton, Four Seasons, W Hotels, Hyatt Hotels, Fairmont and Westin — across the world. With passes, users gain access to amenities such as swimming pools, spas, and fitness centers without having to shell out big bucks to stay overnight.

ResortPass itself serves as a marketplace, matching users with hotels and taking a cut of each reservation. As restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic have eased and people are eager to catch up, the company says it has seen an increase in business, with a 100% increase in gross booking volume up to now in 2022 compared to 2021. In other words, it has doubled its number of users.

The startup works with properties to help determine prices, which generally reflect the level of service and amenities a hotel offers. For example, a day pass to access a swimming pool can range from $25 to $100 per adult, depending on the hotel. Children usually pay less or are free.

Beyond its market offering, ResortPass has also designed SaaS software to make it easier for the hospitality industry to support day guest access. The reasoning is that ResortPass provides a new revenue stream for these hotels, giving them a way to welcome more guests – on a daily basis. In fact, ResortPass claims to have generated more than $1 million in new booking revenue to “many” of its individual hotel partners. Since its creation, the startup claims to have brought together 1.6 million customers in its partner hotels. Although ResortPass membership is free for hotels, many subscribe to its access management and reservation software tools, which can also give overnight guests the ability to book amenities on site.

ResortPass currently operates primarily in the United States – in 35 states, including Florida, California, New York, Hawaii, Oklahoma and Arizona. But it’s seeing such good traction in recently entered markets outside of the United States, such as the Caribbean, Mexico and Puerto Rico, which it plans to eventually develop in new geographic areas such as Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. To fuel this geographic expansion, ResortPass is announcing today that it has raised $26 million in a Series B funding round co-led by Declaration Partners and 14W, bringing its total raised to $37 million. The first funder CRV also participated in the financing, as well as new investors such as William Morris Endeavour, Adam Grantfamous entrepreneurs Gwyneth Paltrow and Jessica Alba, and Brian Kelly, also known as The Points Guy.

Airbnb’s syndicate, AirAngels, also invested. This makes sense, given that Airbnb and ResortPass aim to create new markets from underutilized inventory.

New York-based ResortPass also announced today that Michael Wolf – who previously worked at ClassPass, Supernatural and Lululemon – has assumed the role of CEO. Amanda Szabo founded ResortPass in 2016 and served as its chief executive until the end of the third quarter. As the company grew, Szabo decided it would benefit her to have a leader with extensive experience working with markets to help her scale. It will serve in an advisory capacity in the future.

“She [Amanda] was a 0 to 1 person,” Wolf told TechCrunch. “I am a one-to-many person. And I was impressed with how the company had built a very strong business without a lot of capital.

He added: “That’s really what I’ve been most excited about from a company that’s worked with dozens of startups.”

Geographically, in the short term, ResortPass is looking to expand “more fully” into the United States and the Caribbean.

“We’re seeing incredibly strong performance from our hotels outside of the United States,” Wolf told TechCrunch in an interview. “Some properties in Puerto Rico are among the best performing hotels in the entire system.”

Longer term, ResortPass will add additional overseas markets such as Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, as well as more hotel partners.

Interestingly, the majority of ResortPass users are locals who want to experience hotel amenities in or near their own city. “Our local users have never had the opportunity to access the hospitality industry locally,” Wolf said. “They thought they had to fly to get those kinds of amenities.”

Travelers who stay at an Airbnb in a city for the extra space but still want access to amenities like a nice pool or fitness center represent another segment of ResortPass customers. Another popular use case is cruise passengers who dock in a city and want to be able to access a nice property just for the day, or who get off a cruise ship well before their flight and don’t want to sit in a airport all day.

When booking users, Wolf says ResortPass aims to “mimic the normal flow of hotel operation” so guests simply blend in.

The “vast majority” of ResortPass users learn about its offering through word of mouth, according to Wolf.

With its new capital, the company plans to strengthen its team in all departments, including sales, marketing, products and operations. It currently has around fifty employees, including 20 engineers. ResortPass is currently not profitable, but Wolf says the company’s user growth is reflected in almost all of its business metrics.

The company had previously raised approximately $11 million, including $9 million in a Series A that was announced in August 2019. Wolf declined to reveal at what valuation this final round was raised, saying only that it was made “at more than 2.5 times the evaluation of the last round. ”

Via email, CRV General Partner Saar Gur noted that his company led the ResortPass selection and Series A rounds based on his belief that the company “provides a unique and delightful experience for consumers, while adding significant additional benefits to their hotel partners at no additional cost.”

14W’s Ryan Ackell is also understandably optimistic. “ResortPass is pioneering an entirely new segment of the $1.5 trillion global lodging industry,” he said in a written statement. “By creating this opportunity for hotels and guests, ResortPass aligns the industry with how people choose to take time with shorter, more frequent experiences closer to home.”