What the business is
Directo is a free Chrome extension that flags when you can book a hotel or rental directly with the property, working across Airbnb, Booking.com, VRBO, Expedia and Abritel listings.
Starting capital
$1M pre-seed from Kima Ventures, Calafia (an angel group of Global Female Tech Leaders), travel-focused Derive Ventures and 26 travel-industry veterans.
How it started
Third-time Madrid founder Pierre Becerril — who sold vacation-rental software startup Transparent to Lighthouse — watched the viral hack and decided the behaviour could be automated with safety rails, working only with 'professional inventory that uses great software'. Co-founders: co-CEO Marina Guastavino (a digital nomad), CTO Julian Toledo and Sofia Canepa (growth and product).
What happened
The extension marks bookable-direct properties with a 'D' icon and a cheers emoji where users reported good deals; poor reports become negotiating leverage for vouchers or discounts with hotels. Revenue comes from hotel-side subscriptions that push special deals to users, currently reinvested into consumer growth. Becerril compares it to Honey, the deal-finding add-on PayPal bought for $4B in 2019.
What has to be true
The hack already had distribution through viral TikToks; Directo only had to remove the friction and the risk.
Trust is the moat: certifying professional inventory with modern booking engines answers the hack's real danger of booking off-platform.
Hotels pay because commission-free direct bookings are worth more to them than OTA-distributed ones.
What can be applied
When a hack goes viral, the behaviour is already validated — the startup job is adding the trust and ergonomics the hack lacks.
Aftermath
As of 27 June 2024 Directo was adding more travel sites to its coverage and reinvesting hotel subscription revenue into growing its consumer install base.
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