Oyster Hotel Reviews, a site that launched a few months ago, has raised $4 million in an extended Series A round of funding from Bain Capital Ventures and Accelerator Ventures. To date, the startup has raised $10.4 million in funding.
The site provides consumers with qualified professional reviews of hotels around the world, hoping to compete with the likes of Frommers, Fodors, Conde Nast Traveler and others. Oyster aims to differentiate itself from the plethora of other travel review sites by offering longer, more magazine-like reviews that are written by a staff of full-time journalists who actually travel to each hotel reviewed.
The online travel industry is a competitive landscape, with TripAdvisor, Fodors, Frommers and TripKick all vying for traffic. But Oyster has received a good amount of positive press since its launch and has raised a fair amount of funding in a tumultuous economic environment, so it may be able to survive in the space. The advantage that Oyster has in terms of content is a team of experienced travel journalists who write detailed and informative reviews that seem to be unbiased. And as the site adds more locations and perhaps more verticals, it should gain a loyal following.