Hotel comparison application Lodgeo has raised £2 million from Javest Investment Fund and a number of angel investors.
The funding will go towards further technology development and international marketing.
Lodgeo aims to enable users to compare prices from the major online travel agents and claims that, unlike rival hotel metasearch services, its technology enables users to book within the app instead of being referred to another site for booking.
Users don’t have to pay at the time of booking and still have the option to pay at the hotel.
The service was founded by Ines Djelassi who, prior to Lodgeo, set up revenue management company Hotel Solutions Direct which was later acquired by Eviivo.
The commercial model for the startup is based on a revenue share between it and the OTA.
The launch of Lodgeo comes at an interesting phase in hotel metasearch with online giants such as booking.com and Expedia focusing on price comparison through their investment Kayak and Trivago respectively.
It is also interesting in light of TripAdvisor’s own metasearch developments as well as the launch of its instant booking service enabling in-app hotel bookings.
Lodgeo will be competing also with the likes of Top10.com, an app based hotel metasearch which raised $8 million in Series B funding back in March.
The Lodgeo board includes booking.com co-founder Marin Muyser who believes there is a gap in the market for a fully-integrated hotel metasearch service.
