Luxury vacations with all the comforts of home — and hotels
InvitedHome is shaking up both the hospitality and homesharing industries by working with homeowners to bring hotel standards to luxury home rentals.
by Katie O’Brien ’16
InvitedHome is shaking upboth the hospitality and homesharingindustries by working with homeowners to bring hotelstandards to luxury home rentals.Vacationers can now personalizetheir trip by staying in a beautiful home and still enjoy standardized,high-quality accommodations.”When you think about all thedifferent hotel companies, you knowexactly what to expect, whether it'sthe Four Seasons or Motel 6,” saysco-founder Henry Parry-Okeden.” But with vacation homes, a guest has no idea what they're going toget. We offer a consistently great experience and a brand youcan trust.”
Not only are InvitedHome's rentals held to meticulous cleaning and maintenance standards and fully stocked with everything a guest needs; the startup provides 24/7 guest services, “just like ahotel's front desk.” InvitedHome manages unique vacation homes inpopular vacation spots in California, Colorado, Florida, and Hawaii.
Parry-Okeden met his co-founders, Tom Feldhusen and MichaelJoseph, when he moved to Boulder, Colo., for his MBA internship atstartup accelerator Techstars. They were using the Techstars programto develop a software startup for homeowners of vacation rentals.In an industry that Parry-Okeden says “hasn't had huge amounts of innovation and change in a long time,” he and his co-founders knew they had a great opportunity to offer something new.
Parry-Okeden, who now heads up strategy and growth atInvitedHome, says Johnson gave him the well-rounded business skillsand the confidence to take risks that he needed to launch a successfulstartup. InvitedHome grew a whopping 8,000 percent between 2011and 2015, landing it 28th place on Inc. magazine's list of fastestgrowingprivate companies in the United States and first place in the magazine's Travel & Hospitality section.
“Most entrepreneurs are never satisfied,” says Parry-Okeden. “Assoon as you reach one milestone, you're already on to the next. In2011 we were only in Lake Tahoe, and now we're in nine markets.”