Vacation rentals: Holidu and Sportihome join forces to make booking sports vacations easier

This partnership combines the strengths of different areas of expertise. Bookiply and Holidu will provide the technological framework for the Sportihome website, while Sportihome will contribute with its knowledge of the French market and sports tourism. At the same time, the love of sports of the respective company founders also connects the two.

The aim of this partnership is to make finding and booking accommodation for sports vacations as easy and reliable as possible. This unique collaboration is the start of a new chapter in the French vacation home market. This will enable hosts and customers to enjoy numerous benefits and will expand the Sportihome offer in the European market.

The collaboration is designed to help individuals and professional vacation rental companies manage their bookings by providing them with the best tools and services to accelerate their growth.

Thanks to this integration, Sportihome hosts will benefit from increased visibility and numerous advantages in the management of their accommodation. In particular, it will allow them to:

• Post their advert on Sportihome as well as on the main booking portals
• Synchronize all calendars 
• Have centralised management of payment transactions
• Benefit from an optimization service for their adverts (description, price, discount, etc.), as well as translation into 7 languages 
• Access to free professional photos, depending on the location of the accommodation.

Bookiply, a German company based in Munich, also relies on its teams based in Marseille, Rennes, Bordeaux, Lyon and Montpellier.

This partnership is all the more fitting because the founders of both companies share a love of sports.

Sylvain Morel, COO of Sportihome, explains: “Sports tourism is experiencing the fastest growth in the travel industry. More and more customers are interested in sports activities during their trip, whether it is the main purpose of the vacation or not. Therefore, the main players in the vacation home rental sector are trying to attract vacation home owners. As part of this strategic partnership, we will support Holidu and Bookiply with our expertise in sports tourism – including our community sports guide, our sports accommodation categories and our partnerships with sports equipment manufacturers. With the help of Holidu and Bookiply, we will have the opportunity to expand on a European scale.”

Fred Diaw, CEO of Sportihome adds, “Before becoming founders of Sportihome, Sylvain and I were hosts ourselves, hosting nearly 300 travelers each year in our home. When we launched Sportihome in 2017, our goal was to create a solution that would allow us to receive bookings from people with whom we share a passion for sports. This made the experience more sociable and human. However, as the volume of bookings grew, we saw more and more hosts struggling to keep their listings up to date on the various platforms because they lacked the time and complexity. For us, technology had to provide a simple, reliable solution. That’s why our meeting with Johannes and Michael went very naturally, as we share many common values, including in the field of sports. It quickly became clear that combining our respective expertise through a long-term partnership was the right decision. Today we are very proud to be able to offer such a comprehensive solution and service to our guests with Bookiply. We hope they will use the time they have gained for even more sports!”

Johannes Siebers, CEO of Holidu, also shares his perspective: “This partnership is also very satisfying for us personally, as my brother Michael and I founded Holidu in 2014 during a surf trip looking for beach accommodation in Portugal. Sportihome’s knowledge of sports tourism will help us provide European travelers with the best and most innovative solution to make life easier for hosts and visitors. We are very excited to join forces with the team to jointly build the leading European provider for booking vacation homes for sports enthusiasts. In terms of sales and bookings, France is one of the largest and most important markets for Holidu and our subsidiary Bookiply is also growing very fast there. Our Bookiply guests express great satisfaction with the product and our accommodations receive excellent reviews.”