gmbh industry tourism founded march 2011 ; 5 years ago 2011 03 founders arne bleckwenn hinrich dreiling headquarters berlin germany number of locations 150 countries area served worldwide key people arne kahlke ceo soren kress ceo services peer to peer property rental revenue 13.6 million 2014 total assets 25.2 million 2014 total equity 9.5 million 2014 owners rocket internet number of employees 240 2014 website wimdu.com footnotes references company register wimdu is a privately held peer to peer property rental company . 1 it operates a global online marketplace for short term rentals and private accommodation . 2 founded by arne bleckwenn and hinrich dreiling in march 2011 and headquartered in berlin germany 3 the company is considered to be one of the major competitors of airbnb and a key vendor of the global vacation rental market . 4 5 since its foundation kinnevik and rocket internet have been involved in the company . 6 in fiscal year 2014 rocket internet held a majority of wimdu shares . 7 contents 1 history 2 operations 3 controversies 4 references 5 external links history edit wimdu was registered as a limited company gesellschaft mit beschr nkter haftung in march 2011 . 8 arne bleckwenn and hinrich dreiling the founders of wimdu founded and managed several other startups before . 9 10 shortly after wimdu launched the company received 90 million in funding from kinnevik and rocket internet . 11 at this time this was the largest investment in a european startup ever . 12 wirtschaftswoche rated wimdu among the most important startups of 2011 . 13 online for less than 100 days wimdu already offered 10 000 accommodations in 150 cities . the company had 400 employees and 15 offices . 14 because the chinese market is different wimdu started a spin off business there called airizu . 15 shortly after the launch of wimdu airbnb publicity criticized the business model . 16 nevertheless airbnb considered acquiring wimdu 17 but finally decided against it . 18 19 by 2012 wimdu claimed to be the biggest social accommodation website from europe . 20 after the first year in business wimdu gained booking revenues of 6.6 million per month and expected more than 100 million for the whole year 2012 . 21 22 later that year the company fundamentally changed its growth strategy activities of international offices were reduced some employees moved back to the berlin headquarters . 23 the media reported that the restructuring was due to rising costs incurred by rapid growth . 24 2013 wimdu closed its china subsidiary airizu now doing business there under their main brand . 25 when it comes to germany in particular peer to peer property rental companies faced new regulatory requirements beginning in 2013 . 26 27 while competitors like 9flats left berlin 28 wimdu continued its operations there . 29 by june 2013 wimdu offered 100 000 accommodations in 150 countries . 30 the same year media reported that rocket internet wanted at moments to sell wimdu . 31 32 in october 2014 the founders arne bleckwenn and hinrich dreiling left wimdu at their own request . 33 the management was handed over to arne kahlke und s ren kress 34 bleckwenn and dreiling took a position in the advisory board . 35 wimdu further expanded its activities at the berlin headquarters . 36 from 2013 to 2014 wimdu increased the number of bookings by 31 % . 37 2015 mediaset and wimdu signed a media for equity deal . 38 the italian media conglomerate invested million euros in the berlin company which received advertising on the mediaset tv channels in return . 39 in the following months wimdu expanded in italy spain and other southern european countries . 40 the mediaset deal was significant for this . 41 42 the city of berlin adopted a law that restricts private apartment rentals . 43 44 this was primarily due to the housing shortage . 45 in april 2016 wimdu filed a lawsuit against the law which received a lot of public attention . 46 47 the company argued that the law illegally restricts the fundamental rights of hosts . 48 author of the lawsuit is helge sodan former president of the constitutional court of berlin . 49 although the lawsuit will likely be successful 50 the senate of berlin continues to uphold the law . 51 a decision is expected for mid 2016 . operations edit wimdu is an online marketplace for private accommodation similar to airbnb jetsetter homeaway and others . 52 the service connects guests and hosts worldwide in order to provide an alternative to hotels . 53 the wimdu website is available in 15 languages including english french german portuguese and spanish for example . wimdu lists 300 000 properties in 150 countries . 54 there are many different types of properties including private rooms apartments houses boats and cars . according to tripping wimdu is the leading european portal for renting city apartments 55 which make up the majority of all properties . 56 wimdu has also become increasingly popular for accommodation near famous individuals . 57 58 users of the wimdu website must register a personal online profile with a valid email address . alternatively wimdu users can log in with an existing facebook account . profiles can be used to rent properties as well as list one s own place there are not different account types for guests and hosts . 59 60 profiles include reviews to build reputation and trust between users of the online marketplace . 61 any booking on wimdu requires a fixed commission of 3 % for the host and 12 % for the guest . 62 wimdu supports different payment methods including credit card direct debit wire transfer and paypal . 63 for security purposes all payments are retained for 24 hours after check in so that guests can check their accommodation for problems . 64 beside the wimdu website there are guest and host apps for ios devices 65 although android is currently not supported . controversies edit rocket internet which is headed up by the samwer brothers and invested heavily in wimdu is renowned for its aggressive entrepreneurship and leadership style . 66 67 68 wimdu has been accused several times of being a clone of airbnb 69 70 as their business model and website design is remarkably similar . 71 in response representatives of the company stated that although the concept may seem similar wimdu has a unique approach 72 treating different countries different cultures in different ways . 73 wimdu offers a hotel light experience in a market where airbnb has the first mover advantage . 74 both airbnb and wimdu have been in a fierce competition especially in german speaking europe . 75 in january 2016 wimdu was accused of leaving their hosts alone to deal with vandalism die zeit stern reported that wimdu refused to compensate a berlin apartment that had been destroyed beyond offering a dedicated insurance for such damages . 76 77 wimdu denied the allegations and pointed out that the host had demanded an excessive refund in this case . 78 die zeit took on the position of wimdu and invited experts to check their standard form contract which was deemed to be unsatisfactory for many cases discussed before . 79 in a tv program groeten van max on dutch tv aired may 30th they showed a b & b being duped as their images were used by someone else . as they informed wimdu about it wimdu ignored the problem allowing others to be duped by a fake room apartment being advertised plus damaging the reputation of the original b & b. when confronted by the tv program at their head office they refused to comment and pointed the reporter to the door . use with extreme caution . to see the episode in dutch source 80 references edit jenna wortham july 25 2011 . room to rent via the web . the new york times . retrieved april 25 2016 . luftbett statt bettenburg . die presse in german . august 28 2011 . p. 20 . anne onken july 2 2011 . heute l.a. morgen amsterdam . die welt in german . p. 12 . missing or empty url help das gesch ft mit den privatwohnungen . bonner general anzeiger in german . october 7 2015 . p. 17 . global vacation rental market 2015 2019 . research and markets . retrieved april 25 2016 . robin wauters june 14 2011 . investors pump 90 million into airbnb clone wimdu . techcrunch . retrieved april 25 2016 . annual report 2014 pdf . rocket internet . may 5 2015 . p. 134 . retrieved april 25 2016 . wimdu gmbh . company register . bundesanzeiger . retrieved april 25 2016 . arne bleckwenn . gruenderszene.de in german . retrieved april 25 2016 . hinrich dreiling . gruenderszene.de in german . retrieved april 25 2016 . alexander h sing june 15 2011 . zimmerdreikampf wimdu sammelt 90 millionen us dollar ein . deutsche startups.de in german . retrieved april 25 2016 . holger schmidt june 15 2011 . rekord start up wimdu erh lt 90 millionen dollar finanzspritze . frankfurter allgemeine zeitung in german . retrieved april 25 2016 . gr nder die wichtigsten startups . wirtschaftswoche in german . retrieved may 10 2015 . oliver vo june 17 2011 . samwer br der der n chste angriff der klonkrieger . wirtschaftswoche in german . retrieved april 25 2016 . thomas ohr may 10 2011 . wimdu enters the chinese market with airizu . eu startups.com . retrieved april 25 2016 . alexia tsotsis june 9 2011 . airbnb freaks out over samwer clones . techcrunch . retrieved april 25 2016 . joel kaczmarek 2014 . die paten des internets in german 3rd ed . . munich finanzbuch verlag . p. 397 . isbn 978 3 86248 353 2 . leena rao october 11 2013 . brian chesky talks about why airbnb didn t acquire european clone wimdu global growth and more . techcrunch . retrieved april 25 2016 . georg r th october 14 2013 . airbnb h tte beinahe wimdu bernommen . gruenderszene.de in german . retrieved april 25 2016 . linsey fryatt march 22 2013 . wimdu vs airbnb the battle for europe hots up ahead of london 2012 olympics . the heureka . retrieved may 10 2016 . robin wauters march 22 2012 . after one year airbnb rival wimdu is big . how big 132 million a year big . the next web . retrieved april 25 2016 . joel kaczmarek march 22 2012 . wimdu gibt erstmals zahlen bekannt . gruenderszene.de in german . retrieved april 25 2016 . alex hofmann september 19 2012 . wimdu streicht internationale b ros zusammen . gruenderszene.de in german . retrieved april 25 2016 . alex hofmann september 20 2012 . airbnb rival wimdu confirms cuts to international offices refocus on berlin . the heureka . retrieved april 25 2016 . josh horwitz july 12 2013 . rocket internet has reportedly shuttered airizu its struggling airbnb clone in china . the next web . retrieved april 25 2016 . isabell prophet october 25 2013 . die jagd auf die untervermieter . die welt in german . p. 30 . frida thurm november 27 2013 . auch deutsche wohnplattformen sollen daten herausgeben . die zeit in german . retrieved april 25 2016 . nach verbot von ferienwohnungen gibt vermittler 9flats in berlin auf . berliner morgenpost in german . november 27 2013 . p. 6 . magdalena r th november 27 2013 . airbnb rival 9flats shuts down office in berlin . the heureka . retrieved april 25 2016 . mit wimdu g nstig n chtigen . kronen zeitung in german . june 9 2013 . p. 10 . magdalena r th january 29 2013 . wimdu findet keine abnehmer .