{"id":65919,"date":"2024-01-03T01:00:56","date_gmt":"2024-01-03T01:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2024\/01\/03\/short-term-rental-provider-frontdesk-lays-off-entire-staff-on-the-verge-of-shutting-down-techcrunch\/"},"modified":"2024-01-03T01:00:56","modified_gmt":"2024-01-03T01:00:56","slug":"short-term-rental-provider-frontdesk-lays-off-entire-staff-on-the-verge-of-shutting-down-techcrunch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2024\/01\/03\/short-term-rental-provider-frontdesk-lays-off-entire-staff-on-the-verge-of-shutting-down-techcrunch\/","title":{"rendered":"Short-term rental provider Frontdesk lays off entire staff, on the verge of shutting down | TechCrunch"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p id=\"speakable-summary\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Another proptech startup has run into trouble.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/stayfrontdesk.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Frontdesk<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, a startup that managed more than 1,000 furnished apartments across the United States, laid off its entire 200-person workforce Tuesday after attempts to raise more capital failed, TechCrunch exclusively learned from sources familiar with internal happenings at the company. The mass layoff comes just seven months after the Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based startup <a href=\"https:\/\/skift.com\/2023\/06\/06\/frontdesk-buys-rival-property-manager-zencity\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">acquired smaller rival Zencity<\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The layoffs, which included full-time, <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> part-time workers and contractors,<\/span> occurred Tuesday afternoon during <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u201ca two-minute Google Meet call,\u201d according to one employee who was among those attending the virtual meeting.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">During that call, Frontdesk CEO <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jesse DePinto<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> told employees that Frontdesk would be filing for <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.abfjournal.com\/%3Fpost_type%3Darticles%26p%3D72054\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">a state receivership<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, an alternative to bankruptcy, according to the sources.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>The company has not responded to a request for comment.\u00a0<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When calling the number on the company\u2019s website, a recording says: \u201cCurrently, Frontdesk is unavailable. If you have a reservation, please seek alternative accommodations and expect to be contacted within the next two weeks.\u201d TechCrunch will update the article if the company responds.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Frontdesk, which was founded in 2017, had <a style=\"background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 1rem; letter-spacing: -0.1px;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.crunchbase.com\/organization\/frontdesk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">raised about $26 million<\/a> from investors such as JetBlue Ventures, Veritas Investments and Sand Hill Angels, according to Crunchbase.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Frontdesk went out for a bridge round, attempting to sell investors on a new plan of doing full building management, sources told TechCrunch. That tactic didn\u2019t work out and the company couldn\u2019t keep operating. Frontdesk was apparently still optimistic about its ability to raise more capital; the startup had posted on LinkedIn openings for several jobs, including <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/jobs\/view\/3745983602\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a chief of staff role<\/a>, just two months ago.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The startup\u2019s business model, which is leasing apartments at market rental rates and furnishing them for short-term rentals in more than 30 markets, has struggled largely due to the upfront costs involved, associated capital expenditures and variables in demand and rates, one of the sources said. Others in the space have also had challenges, including Stay Alfred, Domio, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2022\/04\/20\/wheelhouse-spins-out-of-lyric-with-16m-to-focus-on-the-flex-rental-market\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Lyric<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2023\/11\/08\/proptech-startup-zeus-living-which-was-backed-by-airbnb-reportedly-shuts-down\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Zeus Living<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, The Guild and WanderJaunt.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2024\/01\/02\/short-term-rental-provider-frontdesk-lays-off-entire-staff-on-the-verge-of-shutting-down\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Another proptech startup has run into trouble. Frontdesk, a startup that managed more than 1,000 furnished apartments across the United States, laid off its entire 200-person workforce Tuesday after attempts to raise more capital failed, TechCrunch exclusively learned from sources familiar with internal happenings at the company. The mass layoff comes just seven months after [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":65920,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-65919","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tech"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65919\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/65920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}