(Vacasa Image)

Silver Lake is betting big on the travel industry despite the ongoing global pandemic.

The top Silicon Valley tech investment firm bought big stakes in Expedia and Airbnb over the past few months, and now it is leading a $108 million Series D round for vacation rental platform Vacasa.

Vacasa CEO Matt Roberts. (Vacasa Photo)

The Portland, Ore.-based company manages more than 26,000 vacation homes in 31 U.S. states and 18 countries, and bills itself as “North America’s largest vacation rental management platform.”

Vacasa interim CEO Matt Roberts, who took over in February, said he believes there will be a consumer shift toward private vacation rentals as people fear going back to hotels and other lodging options due to safety-related concerns.

“Professional management companies like Vacasa can offer a greater degree of control over how each of our vacation rentals are cleaned and cared for,” said Roberts, the former OpenTable CEO.

Vacasa recently launched a new program called Vacasa Premium Clean that meets or exceeds CDC recommendations.

It’s unclear which lodging options will come out ahead as people start traveling again. “While hotels might have the edge when it comes to state-of-the-art cleaning methods, the shared space endemic to hotels such as elevators and lobbies, might give many travelers pause,” The New York Times noted.

Vacasa said guest reservations in May were up 6X compared to April. “Booking windows” — the time from reservation to actual travel date — peaked at 142 days in April but are now are back to 2019 averages, at 40 days.

The cash will help Vacasa weather the COVID-19 storm. The company is already bringing back some furloughed employees and has resumed hiring.

The pandemic has rocked the travel industry, from airline companies to hotels to tech giants such as Expedia Group. Gross bookings, the total retail value of transactions conducted through Expedia platform, were down 39% to $17.9 billion in the first quarter.

Vacasa is using tech to disrupt the hospitality industry, similar to companies such as Airbnb and HomeAway, which was acquired by Expedia for $3.9 billion in 2015.

But it’s not just a marketplace — it is a “full-service property management company,” helping homeowners manage the entire booking process from start-to-finish. Vacasa employs thousands of people across its markets for on-the-ground “field-based roles” — housekeepers, reservations agents, local managers, etc.

Vacasa is No. 2 on the GeekWire 200, our ranking of top Pacific Northwest startups. Existing investors including Riverwood Capital and Level Equity also participated in the Series C round.

Silver Lake previously led Vacasa’s $319 million Series C round this past October. Total funding in the 11-year-old company is $634.5 million.

“We are excited to continue our partnership with Vacasa, which has spent the past decade delivering exceptional experiences to its guests and strong financial returns to its homeowners,” Joerg Adams, managing director at Silver Lake, said in a statement. “We believe in the team, the business model and the customers and communities Vacasa serves. This investment enables Vacasa to continue to innovate and to maintain its strong growth trajectory.”

Roberts took over for Vacasa founder Eric Breon, who led the company for more than a decade and remains on the board of directors.

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