world , there are a good 10 or more other hotel deals in the works and growth by lease in the Kayakbranded hotel space is likely to continue .
Life House is managing the initial Kayak properties on a non-exclusive basis , but Kayak is the one putting the capex into the properties . “ Then we have our own team writing code , etc . It ’ s a significant investment ,” Hafner says .
Since taking over in Miami , Hafner says performance in an already very strong market has been great . “ We ’ re beating all of our financial metrics and our comp set ,” he says . “ And the software ’ s still very early days . So , the reason it ’ s performing well is because we ’ re providing the demand . We can fill the rooms at good ADRs . The software actually isn ’ t very good yet at extracting any of the operational synergies .”
The new properties in Mexico are also performing well with Hafner saying he filled 60 % of the rooms just after opening .
In the meantime , Zeidan is sourcing more deals for Kayak , as are some real estate capital partners . “ We ’ re also getting lots of inbounds – folks who get the idea of marrying a demand channel with a tech stack and the actual physical asset ,” Hafner says .
Hafner explained that Kayak ’ s primary intention behind creating branded hotels is actually to learn the business model and the pain points , and then to showcase what it can do for other hotels with its emerging tech stack so that they ’ re encouraged to jump on the Kayak bandwagon .
Kayak also co-led a US $ 60 million Series C financing round for Life House , which is known for its
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