Zumper secures additional $30M in funding to launch short-term rentals; becomes the first real estate marketplace to offer annual, monthly and nightly rental options

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Aug 25, 2022, 11:40 ET

With new inventory of more than half a million short-term listings, Zumper diversifies offerings to meet consumer demand for flexibility, all on one purpose-built platform

SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 25, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Zumper, North America's largest privately owned rental marketplace, launches their short-term rental product. Raising $178M to date, the latest Series D funding extension of $30M was earmarked for expansion into short-term rentals at a time when consumers demand, if not require, flexibility in housing choices. Work from anywhere has prompted a cultural shift in day-to-day life and is just one example of how the pandemic accelerated macro trends in alternative accommodation. Zumper found that ⅓ of users were interested in flexible rentals* and data from Zumper's 2021 survey* of short-term rental users dictates that beyond the trendy use cases for short-term rentals, whether digital nomads or consumers with the unfettered means to travel and live a flexible lifestyle, short-term rentals are a means for a myriad of situational stays, such as a gap in housing, migratory work and even a stepping stone to building rental history, credit and more. The survey also revealed that 74 percent of users are booking 1-2 monthly rentals annually and 49 percent remain in one unit between two and six months. Short-term rentals are therefore not just an option for how people vacation, but how they live.

Zumper is the first to offer long-term, monthly, and vacation rentals

"Our brand is aspirational yet grounded," said Shalin Amin, Chief Experience Officer of Zumper. "We're not just for trendsetters and digital nomads but for those in-between leases or those trying to build a rental history. We're a solution for many people looking for temporary housing in a growing workforce of migratory workers, like traveling nurses, construction crews, and disaster response teams. Our users play a critical role in making the communities and cities they relocate to thrive."

In Zumper's 2022 survey* of monthly renters, 12.3 percent of respondents said they use short-term rentals for nomad life, while 35.2 percent said they use them to accommodate a temporary gap in housing, by far the most common use. Monthly renters also use them for work travel, as 21.3 percent said that was why they used short-term rentals. Think of a traveling nurse or someone whose job is location-specific but at multiple locations. Rounding out the use cases were people scouting locations before a move (19.4 percent) and students who didn't want to commit for an entire year (8.1 percent).

In Zumper's 2021 survey*, almost 50 percent said they're not sure where to even find monthly rentals, suggesting that there's a need for a go-to platform that caters to these renters.

By expanding inventory to now offer short-term options, Zumper directly addresses renter pain points by giving consumers the flexibility to find their forever or for now residence. Zumper's short-term listings can be booked at no additional fee to the guest, which is traditionally upwards of 15% or more on other short-term rental sites such as Airbnb. Conversely landlords can now opt to list their properties short-term to meet demand with the ability to advertise their short-term and monthly rentals in front of Zumper's over 178M annual visits.

"With the traditional short-term rental industry, fees are too high and consumers need to look at a multitude of different websites to find the right listing," said Zumper co-founder and CEO Anthemos Georgiades. "We want to build the most comprehensive rental platform that enables our renters to easily find the best short-term, monthly or long-term rentals with a product designed for today's far more flexible world."

Zumper's short-term product has been designed and built to:

Deliver a larger selection of choice
Aggregate inventory from multiple short-term partners
Offer a digital rental concierge to help find tailored listings that meet a renter's needs
Provide tools like Saved Search and Alerts to put the renters in control
Allow for an all-in-one seamless app experience

For more information visit: https://www.zumper.com

For property owners interested in listing a short-term rental visit: https://www.zumper.com/str

*Data from Zumper's 2021 & 2022 short-term rental surveys

About Zumper

Zumper is the largest privately owned rental platform in North America with more than 178 million site visits a year. Zumper is on a mission to make renting an apartment as easy as booking a hotel.

Named a 2021 Best Startup Employer by Forbes and a 2021 Best Place to Work by BuiltIn SF, Zumper is headquartered in San Francisco with hubs in Los Angeles, Scottsdale, Chicago, Miami, and Providence. To date, Zumper has raised over $178 million from Kleiner Perkins, Goodwater Capital, Headline, Dawn Capital, and the Blackstone Group. Learn more at www.zumper.com or email [email protected].

SOURCE Zumper