Rami Zeidan, founder and CEO of hospitality company Life House, has
confirmed to PhocusWire that he has resigned from his positions as CEO and board
member with the company.
The news of his departure was first
reported by The Information Monday afternoon, which cited an email sent by
Life House board member Chris Hemmeter to shareholders. Hemmeter is managing
director of Thayer Ventures, which has invested in Life House.
Early today, Hemmeter told PhocusWire that Zeidan and Life House
reached “an amicable resolution” regarding his separation and that “The Life House
vision is sold and the team in good hands. We are enthusiastic about the
future.”
According to The Information, Hemmeter’s email
named two new interim leaders for the company, both from Flighthub: Christopher
Cave as CEO and Marc Ghobriel at chief financial officer.
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In a statement to PhocusWire, Zeidan said he is “incredibly proud
of what Life House has achieved and grateful to have had the opportunity to
serve [his] employees, investors and customers these past seven years and is
looking forward to applying [his] learnings towards his next company.”
His departure follows an
article published by The Information on February 14 that said a least a third of Life House’s 50 hotel customers have
tried to terminate their contracts with the startup in recent months. The
article cited current and former Life House employees, hotel owners and internal
documents.
Founded in 2017, Life House has been a
fast-growing startup that develops, designs and operates boutique hotels
using what it describes as a proprietary suite of technology solutions for
revenue management, marketing, financial management and property operations,
with a focus on driving direct bookings and controlling costs.
The company was on PhocusWire’s
list of Hot 25 Travel Startups of 2020.
The startup gained credibility in March
2021 when Kayak announced it would take over a Life House property in Miami
Beach and re-brand it as Kayak Miami Beach, with Life House tasked with
managing it. Later that year, in December 2021, Kayak
led the company’s $60 million Series C funding round, and Kayak CEO Steve
Hafner is listed as an advisor on the Life House website.
According to Crunchbase, Life House has raised
more than $100 million to date. In 2021, Zeidan spoke on PhocusWire’s How I
Got Here podcast about how he had launched and planned to grow the company.