Quick Pitch: PackLate makes booking a vacation rental as easy as booking a hotel.
Genius Idea: PackLate is an online marketplace for last-minute deals on vacation rentals. Members can browse the site for exclusive discounts -- often up to 45% off -- on properties in approximately 30 locations, primarily in California, Colorado and Florida.
When users find a rental they're interested in, they can opt to book or "watch" the property. PackLate will automatically inform users when the price changes or others express interest in the same rental; the risk is, of course, that if users wait too long, someone else might snatch the deal.
Recently, invite-only sales sites like Gilt's JetSetter, Rue La La and TabletHotels have begun to offer discounted travel deals in a similar fashion, mainly on stays at major hotels and high-end vacation packages. Of the three, TabletHotels is the most similar to PackLate with its emphasis on last-minute opportunities at boutique hotels.
PackLate, however, has focused on building relationships with smaller property managers of vacation rentals, rather than hotels. The four-person, Philadelphia-based company launched a mere eight months ago, having obtained $700,000 in seed capital from a number of local venture capital funds and private angel investors.
Given the small size of the staff and the inherent difficulties of forming business relationships with many small and medium-size property managers and owners, it will take awhile for PackLate to scale. That, and there needs to be a shift in consumer thinking for it to really take off; as The New York Times points out, Americans outside of the upper tax brackets have yet to "embrace the indulgent concept of the impulsive vacation."
What do you think of PackLate? Have you ever booked an impulsive, last-minute vacation because you saw a good online discount? Please share your experiences in the comments.
[img credit: *Micky]
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