Well, if summer ever officially arrives around these parts, Dwellable’s new service might be a nice resource. The Seattle upstart, created last year by Urbanspoon co-founder Adam Doppelt, today is taking the wraps off vacation rental listings for its home state of Washington.
That means you can now browse dozens of vacation rental properties from around the state, from the high-desert air of central Washington to the beaches of the San Juan islands to the mountains of the Cascade Range. The company now offers more than 60,000 vacation rentals on its Web site and through its iPad app, including properties in destinations such as Cape Cod, Colorado, Hawaii and Oregon.
Dwellable is going up against some big-time competitors, namely HomeAway which raised $250 million in venture funding in 2008 and then raised $216 million more in an IPO last year. Even though HomeAway’s stock has sunk nearly 50 percent in the past year, it still has a much larger war chest.
Doppelt, however, is accustomed to competing against deep-pocketed competitors, something he helped successfully navigate while at Urbanspoon.
“Personally, I find that the existing vacation rental sites generally do a poor job of meeting the needs of travelers, ” Doppelt told GeekWire last year. “The existing sites are clunky, biased, non-comprehensive and generally ugly. This is a space that’s ripe for competition. We can do better.”
In order to help lead the charge, the company named startup veteran Brenda Spoonemore as CEO last fall.
Previously on GeekWire: Hawaiian beach vacation from hell sparks Urbanspoon co-founder to start Dwellable
