In 2017, Sylvain Morel and Fréderic Diaw, two sports enthusiasts, launched Sportihome from Montpellier, a vacation rental platform for sports tourism, catering to those who want to book accommodations in a place where they can easily engage in activities such as hiking, road cycling, mountain biking, skiing, golfing, or kite-surfing. Today, there are around twenty sports available. The property owners provide information about the nearby sports and the facilities available for guests.
The platform previously claimed to have 10,000 rentals in 40 countries, with 95% of them in France. However, things have now changed with a collaboration that aims to expand its reach. The Montpellier-based company has recently partnered with Bookiply, a software and services provider based in Munich, Germany. Bookiply is a subsidiary of Holidu, a company with 500 employees that operates a portal for comparing and booking vacation rentals.
Plus d’offres
Bookiply fournit donc désormais l’ossature technologique de Sportihome. La collaboration a démarré en avril dernier, « mais on a préféré s’assurer que tout fonctionnait bien avant de l’annoncer », indique Sylvain Morel. Cette solution logicielle a vocation à aider les propriétaires à gérer plus facilement les réservations.
« As the volume of bookings increased, more and more hosts were facing difficulties in keeping their listings up to date on different platforms, mainly due to lack of time. It is worth noting that the majority of owners list their properties on an average of three platforms, » explains Frédéric Diaw, CEO of Sportihome. « For example, they had issues with synchronizing calendars in real-time… The technology provided by Bookiply allows us to solve this problem in a simple and reliable way, as it enables the same listing to be distributed across multiple booking platforms, including Sportihome. »
For hosts who list their accommodations, Sportihome promises time savings, increased visibility, and easier management through various new features related to the integration of Bookiplly. This includes simultaneous distribution of listings (translated into seven languages) on fifteen booking portals, calendar synchronization, and centralized management of payment transactions. Hosts now also have access to local contacts, as Holidu has opened offices in Bordeaux, Lyon, Marseille, and Rennes.
Commissionnement
« For travelers, there is now a more reliable reservation system and more offers, thus providing more choices, » says Frédéric Diaw. « With Bookiply, we integrate 60,000 French accommodations listed on other platforms and identified for sports activities, such as accommodations within the vicinity of a ski resort. »
Regarding Sportihome, the benefits of the new collaboration are found at multiple levels, as explained by Sylvain Morel: « First and foremost, there is the satisfaction of hosts and travelers who have access to a robust solution. For Sportihome and Bookiply, it is a source of shared revenue: Sportihome brings accommodation owners in France to Holidu, who sees France as a territory to develop, and earns commissions on these accommodations and reservations… The interest for Bookiply, which currently has 25,000 accommodations in Europe, is to have as many owners as possible using their tool. »
« In terms of sales and bookings, France is one of the largest and most extensive markets for Holidu, and our subsidiary Bookiply is also experiencing rapid expansion there, » said Johannes Siebers, CEO of Holidu, in a statement. « We are delighted to be able to offer this service to even more vacation rental owners. »
Viser la rentabilité
Sylvain Morel’s goal is to expand the sports tourism platform on a European scale: « More and more tourists are interested in sports activities during their travels, whether sports are the main purpose of their trip or not. Now, we will be able to focus on our brand image and expand in Europe by starting, in a few months, to identify and qualify accommodations that can meet the demand for sports tourism. »
Two years ago, in November 2021, Sportihome, which employs ten employees, raised 2 million euros from the Luxembourg fund Accurafy 4, Banque des Territoires, and Bpifrance. Its executives do not disclose their revenue, with Sylvain Morel stating that « over the past six months, with the integration of Bookiply, we have achieved the revenue of the past six years… This enables us to aim for profitability in 2024. »
