Bob W, a short-term rentals group, plans to enter the Irish market after securing a €40 million funding round.
The Finnish company operates serviced aparthotels in 17 European cities and is now planning a broader expansion.
“Actively, we’re looking to expand in Dublin. We’re engaged with several partners,” co-founder and group chief executive Niko Karstikko said. “We expect to be there sooner than later.”
Mr Karstikko said the presence of major tech companies in Ireland and its tourism industry were the driving forces behind expanding to Dublin.
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“That’s the natural customer demographic for us. We always go for metropolitan locations that cater to both tourists and B2B and of course all those European [tech] headquarters that are based out of Dublin are natural for us,” he said.
The company caters to companies that need to house executives for a short stay in a city or staff that are brought in on secondment for several months.
“If you think from a B2B perspective, you’ve got the HR boss who’s trying to figure out where everybody stays. If you have an executive coming for one night, Bob W is the answer,” he said. “We think that there’s a lot of opportunity in Dublin so we could definitely see us going to multiple properties.”
He said that Helsinki, a similar sized city to Dublin, has six Bob W properties.
“In Dublin we’ve got plenty of room to grow because the price point is accessible. It’s not cheap but it’s not expensive either.”
Bob W raised €40 million last month, with venture capital firm Evli Growth Partners leading the expansion.
Mr Karstikko said Bob W typically only employs one person on the ground to manage a property.
“We build our own tech so we get to operate a property almost without staff. We use third-party cleaners and we have one operational person per property on payroll. We can operate at a fraction of the cost.”
Mr Karstikko said Bob W seeks properties in areas that are zoned for hotels. Although the company has “got Airbnb type vibes”, he does not expect a backlash against the company over potentially taking housing stock away from residents, a charge sometimes levelled at Airbnb.
“We play by the rules of the local legislation so that we’re on the right side, comparable to whatever zone hotels would be,” he said. “For us, there should be absolutely zero risk because we are in hotel zoning and that by definition is a commercial zoning and the whole purpose of zoning is to create a separation between residential and offices and hotels and all that.”
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