What Karta Technologies does

Karta is a two-sided online vacation rental marketplace founded in 2016 that connects individual travelers with property hosts offering short-term accommodations worldwide. The platform lists over 2 million properties spanning hotels, apartments, vacation homes, cottages, cabins, B&Bs, condos, and bungalows, accessible via its consumer-facing website and a mobile application that offers in-app discounts. The core product surface consists of a multi-filter search engine (price, distance, rating, popularity, best value), a booking flow with cancellation policies, a mobile app with QR-code distribution, and a self-serve host onboarding portal that includes an earnings-estimator tool to attract supply.

Karta monetizes via a marketplace commission model: it charges service fees to hosts on completed bookings, while hosts retain discretion over nightly pricing. The specific take rate is not publicly disclosed. The company employs a horizontal, long-tail segmentation strategy targeting both sides of the marketplace — individual leisure travelers on the demand side and property owners/hosts on the supply side — with no named enterprise or B2B customer segment.

Karta operates as a privately held, apparently bootstrapped company with no disclosed institutional investors, funding rounds, executive team, or headquarters address. Its GTM motion is fully self-serve and direct-to-consumer, supported by a multi-channel acquisition strategy: SEO-optimized country and city landing pages, a 49-page content blog, social media presence across Telegram, Instagram, X, and Facebook, email newsletters, and Trustpilot-driven credibility signaling. The company is registered (inferred) in the United States and serves virtually every country globally, with multilingual support including Thai and Korean. The absence of management disclosures, M&A activity, patents, awards, or regulatory actions across the input indicates a small, low-profile operation relative to incumbent OTAs.

Name

Karta Technologies

Legal name

Karta

Website

https://karta.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2016

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

251–500 employees

Short description

Karta is a global two-sided marketplace founded in 2016 that connects leisure travelers with property hosts for short-term vacation rentals, offering 2 million+ properties across virtually every country via web and mobile app, monetizing through host booking commissions.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Online Travel Marketplace

NAICS

Other Traveler Accommodation (72119), Traveler Accommodation (7211)

SIC

Hotels, Rooming Houses, Camps & Other Lodging Places (7000)

akta.pro primary industry

Direct Booking Platforms & Booking Engines for Hosts/Managers (THAMALAE)

akta.pro secondary industry

Professional/Managed Inventory Vacation Rental Marketplaces (THAMALAB)

Keywords

• Vacation rental marketplace
• Short-term accommodation booking
• Property listing platform
• Hotel booking platform
• Online travel marketplace

Headquarters

HQ city

San Antonio

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Digital Commerce or Content

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Personnel, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Host Listing/Booking Commission: Karta generates revenue by facilitating bookings between property hosts and travelers. Property hosts list on the platform and pay service fees when bookings are completed. The marketplace takes a commission on each successful transaction.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Karta operates a two-sided online marketplace that connects travelers seeking short-term accommodations with property hosts offering rentals worldwide. The platform aggregates over 2 million properties across hotels, vacation homes, apartments, cottages, cabins, B&Bs, condos, and bungalows, enabling guests to search, filter, and book stays while hosts self-list their properties and pay service fees on completed bookings.

Product overview

Karta is a unified vacation rental and hotel booking marketplace offering multiple interconnected services. The core product is the Karta.com platform, which enables travelers to search and book accommodations across 2 million+ properties worldwide. This is complemented by the Karta App for mobile bookings with in-app discounts, the Host Platform for property owners to list and manage rentals, and the Karta Blog for travel content and destination guides. The ecosystem connects property seekers with hosts through a single marketplace infrastructure.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Karta.com Platform Online marketplace for booking hotels, apartments, and vacation rentals worldwide. The platform connects travelers with property owners and hosts, offering over 2 million properties across multiple countries with search filters for price, distance, rating, popularity, and best value.
• Karta App Mobile application enabling users to search and book accommodations on the go, with in-app discounts and access to 1.5 million available properties.
• Karta Host Platform Platform enabling property owners to list their properties, estimate rental earnings, and manage bookings through the Karta marketplace. Hosts self-onboard via the 'Become a Host' feature.
• Karta Blog Travel insights and tips platform featuring articles about destinations, trip ideas, and travel guides to inspire and inform travelers, supporting content marketing and SEO.

Quantifiable outcome

• Over 2 million properties available for booking worldwide
• +1 more outcomes

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Broad incumbents

• Hotels.com: Hotels.com (Expedia subsidiary) is a global hotel-focused booking platform that also lists apartments and vacation rentals. It overlaps with Karta's hotel and apartment segments while lacking depth in whole-home vacation rentals.
• Tripadvisor: Tripadvisor operates a meta-search and booking platform spanning hotels, vacation rentals, restaurants, and attractions. While its core is reviews-led discovery, its booking engine competes with Karta for the same traveler demand.
• Agoda: Agoda (Booking Holdings) is a global accommodation platform with APAC strength, offering hotels, homes, and apartments. It competes with Karta in the same search intent categories, particularly across Asian destinations where Karta has SEO presence.
• Expedia: Expedia is a global OTA that aggregates hotels, vacation rentals, flights, and packages. Its Vrbo and Hotels.com subsidiaries directly compete with Karta's supply and demand sides, though Expedia's broader portfolio gives it cross-sell advantages.
• Booking.com: Booking.com is the world's largest accommodation marketplace, combining hotels with vacation rentals under one platform. While broader than Karta's vacation-rental focus, it competes for the same traveler search queries and host supply worldwide.

Emerging players

• Hopper: Hopper is a mobile-first travel app offering hotels, vacation rentals, flights, and price prediction tools. It is comparable as a digital-native accommodation booking platform with app-centric booking incentives, similar to Karta's mobile app strategy with in-app discounts.
• Hostelworld: Hostelworld is a niche marketplace focused on hostels and budget shared accommodation globally. It overlaps with Karta's short-stay shared-inventory segment but targets a younger, budget traveler persona distinct from Karta's broader accommodation mix.

Direct peers

• Vrbo: Vrbo (owned by Expedia) is a vacation rental marketplace focused on whole-home short-term rentals, with a similar two-sided host model and commission revenue. It directly overlaps Karta's vacation home, cabin, and condo inventory focus.
• Airbnb: Airbnb is the global benchmark for vacation rental marketplaces, operating the same two-sided host/traveler model with self-serve listings and commission-based monetization. It is Karta's most direct competitor and defines the category's product and trust standards.

Regional players

• Trip.com: Trip.com (parent of Ctrip, Skyscanner, Qunar) is the leading Asian online travel platform spanning hotels, flights, and vacation rentals. It is comparable on product offering but its primary market overlap with Karta is in APAC destinations.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/kartarentals
• Facebookfacebook.com/kartarentals
• Instagraminstagram.com/kartarentals

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Karta Technologies