AvantStay undergoes third layoffs round in 12 months
US: Los Angeles-based premier next-generation hospitality platform AvantStay has cut a further 37 jobs, equating to 10 per cent of its overall workforce, representing the company’s third round of redundancies in the last 12 months.
In news first reported by Skift, AvantStay said in a statement that the job cuts were part of an “ongoing reorganisation strategy to drive efficiency and reduce operational silos”, adding that they were largely due to its “fully proprietary platform and technology efficiencies gained over the past six months”.
Of those who posted updates about the layoffs on social media, affected employees appeared to primarily work in operational and customer experience roles at AvantStay.
Despite the cuts, AvantStay said that it was still a profitable company. Last February, the company closed a $500 million PropCo funding round led by asset management firm Saluda Grade, and two months before that, it raised $160 million in Series B funding.
In November, AvantStay reduced its team by 144 people [22 per cent of its workforce], having only just laid off 43 staff members four months beforehand.
At the time, co-founders Sean Breuner and Reuben Doetsch had attributed the layoffs to over-hiring and not preparing sufficiently for uncertain shocks to the economy.
After weathering the after-effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and huge shifts in hospitality demand, AvantStay had scaled its team to more than 700 people across the United States and around the world. However, moving into the second half of the year, the company struggled to adapt to a “very different economic climate”.
AvantStay is not the only operator to have eliminated jobs so far in 2023. Denver-based Evolve cut 164 roles in May [despite raising $100 million in growth funding just over a year prior to the move], while Sonder, Vacasa and Blueground have also undergone extensive job cuts this year.
