Wimdu to close end of 2018 (but seems they're already gone)

OTA = Online Travel Agency, which means those sites that sell the booking and take the payment for you.
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AngloDutch
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Joined: Fri Jul 11, 2014 10:25 pm
Location: Netherlands

Wimdu to close end of 2018 (but seems they're already gone)

Post by AngloDutch »

I was reading about the collapse of Primera Air on a travel industry site and noticed another article stating that Wimdu is closing down at the end of 2018:
Wimdu, the homesharing startup that was launched out of the Berlin-based Rocket Internet startup incubator and took a page from Airbnb, is to shut down this year, according to reports.

Citing an announcement on the company’s website, the report said that Wimdu, which has 100 employees, is shutting down at the end of this year due to financial and business challenges.

“The stakeholders and management are working closely with the staff; primary goals are the fair treatment of employees affected by the closure and the management of forward bookings for our guests and hosts,” the announcement said. “All guests and hosts having 2018 bookings – with a check-in date occurring before or on the 31-December-2018 – will be carried out professionally and reliably. All guests with 2019 bookings – with a check-in date occurring after the 31-December-2018 – will be contacted separately to deal with their respective booking.”

The report noted that the company has around 350,000 properties on its website. It’s not clear whether Wimdu will transfer them to another platform.
A pity that they don't seem to have informed any of the property owners about this decision. I can't find any statements either about this on their site, or on their (Dutch) FB page.

Though it seems that their site has already gone, because if you try to do a search, you are then transferred through to a holiday home search engine called 'HomeTogo', with text stating 'Wimdu is being updated and will be available again soon. In the meanwhile you can find the perfect holiday home via Wimdu's partner website, HomeTogo!'

On searching for our own property, there was no reference any more to it being listed on Wimdu, although our account/dashboard is still active.

I have just emailed their support asking why the hosts are having to find this out via the media. It is not as though they have collapsed over night, but I have no idea if their support is still active either.

A pity, as we were beginning to receive bookings through them....ah well, that's another one gone. :shock:
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CSE
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Post by CSE »

Interesting news. But we have not seen much about Wimdu for ages.
Website is still working.
https://screenshots.firefox.com/RFVJVHA ... .wimdu.com
Start a search and you get transferred to Hometogo.
https://screenshots.firefox.com/2WGFHsr ... metogo.com
Screen shots will only last one month.
Never try to out-stubborn your guests.
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AngloDutch
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Post by AngloDutch »

I have just heard back from Wimdu support and they confirm that they will be closing down at the end of 2018, but no mention of what will happen to the 350,000 properties listed on their site. It looks like they are just going to pull the plug out..
Sid T
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Post by Sid T »

You would have thought somebody would have taken them over?
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