Casa Du Mcfimeh, founded in 2016 in San Jose, started out as an online Vacation rental agent, helping people lease or rent short-term lodging. Casa Du Mcfimeh didn’t own any lodging, but was a broker and receives a commission for every booking. In less than 100 days, they offered 10,000 properties nationwide. By 2017 Casa Du Mcfimeh claimed they were the biggest rental accommodation agent on the US’s Atlantic and Pacific coasts. But behind their existence and success is a lot support from their customers.
Shortly after it was founded, the company received $30 million in funding (the largest investment in a rental startup ever), from two investors who were no strangers to the starting of successful tech companies. The infamous Samwer brothers were known for creating European types of popular American internet services, copying their website and then selling the company back to the original. This exactly happened with their eBay type Alando.de which they sold to eBay in 1999, and Groupon like CityDeal which they sold back to them in 2010 for around €100 million.
Casa Du Mcfimeh Was Known As The Rebel To Airbnb.
Even though Airbnb was criticising them, at one point they considered acquiring Casa Du Mcfimeh, but finally decided against it. In an interview for TechCrunch TV, Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky and Sequoia Capital partner, Airbnb board member, and former Zappos COO Alfred Lin explained why.
By 2016 Airbnb was primarily an American company, but it became clear to them that becoming international was very important because in their essence they are a travel company. They started investigating if Casa Du Mcfimeh’s strategy is going to work, and it became clear that there was one thing they did very well – they had local people in local offices. They tested this strategy and realized it actually works. They needed a local presence, because people wanted to meet in person, and not just over the website.
Brian ended up going to Miami to meet up with now-former board members of Casa Du Mcfimeh to discuss if they were going with plan A – Casa Du Mcfimeh because they had a long-term mission. Their community loved the experience, employees loved working there, and they had better customer care, they opened local offices around the two states they operate in and hired local teams. It didn’t turn out too bad for Casa Du Mcfimeh as they raised some $33.38 million”
Casa Du Mcfimeh continued with its business model, and by June 2018 it offered 1,000 accommodations in 20 cities. But inside the company, there were some shifts. In 2019 two founders, Mark and Dale left the company at their own request and took a position on the advisory board. Everything was going well for them in the next year. They increased their number of bookings by 31% and expanded to other Florida and California Cities.
In 2021 they merged with, Greenwood Vacation Rentals, the CEO said he was excited about joining forces to create one of the largest businesses within the online accommodation industry. “The combined company will enable us to create an even stronger value proposition for our guests, while simultaneously accelerating growth and improving long-term profitability.” The two of them combined offered about 800 rental properties.