Founded April 2013 in Athens, blueground is a hospitality company that provides business executives and individuals requiring mid to long term accommodation, with beautifully furnished and serviced homes in the most sought-after locations.
Blueground has developed a unique business model that differentiates it from the traditional serviced apartment operators. First, by leasing existing high-end residential properties, it avoids the lengthy and capital intensive construction process of traditional hotel operators, while providing its guests with a home experience. At the same time, the company’s scale, its furnishing standardization, its proprietary technology, and professional management differentiates it from the typical small-scale furnished apartment operators.
Business executives prefer renting from blueground because of the selection of exceptional properties (in terms of location, finishing, and furnishing), the cost saving compared to premium hotel apartments and, finally, because of blueground’s extreme attention to guest satisfaction. At the same time, property owners lease their properties to blueground because they see value in dealing with a reliable, long-term, corporate tenant, which ensures 100% occupancy and zero maintenance hassle.
Blueground is developing a technologically advanced platform which automates all aspects of the business. This includes a proprietary online booking and payment platform, a mobile application that covers all interactions with guests, a CRM tool and an operations system that is continuously improving internal efficiency.
For these reasons, the company has gained the trust of over 400 property owners and is already counting multinationals, such as Samsung, Panasonic, H&M, IKEA, Novo Nordisk, Oracle and Siemens, in its client list.
After winning 2016’s Hellenic Entrepreneurship Award, blueground, continued expanding its presence in Athens and Istanbul, launched its operations in Dubai and closed a fundraising round A of $5.8M led by American fund Endeavor Catalyst and European fund VentureFriends. As a result, today blueground operates over 400 apartments, employs 60 professionals (of which 40 in Athens) and continues to grow at triple-digit growth rates.
With this new financing round, in 2017 the company plans to further grow its presence in the three existing markets, open one new market and continue to invest in technology to further improve internal operational efficiency, as well as guest and owner satisfaction.
Main photo from blueground website
