The company does not own any lodging; it is merely a broker and receives commissions from both guests and hosts in conjunction with every booking.
[4] 9flats was launched by German internet entrepreneur Stephan Uhrenbacher – founder of Qype, and former head of northern European operations for lastminute.com.
[7][8][9] In late 2011, 9flats became the first well-known European or North American company in the social travel space to open an Asian office in Singapore, led by VP of Asia Ng Wei Leen, establishing a presence ahead of global competitors like Airbnb.
[10][11] In January 2012, 9flats completed a round of funding led by T-Venture, the venture capital arm of Deutsche Telekom AG.
[12] In August 2012, 9flats acquired Toronto-based competitor iStopOver, extending its service to North America and growing its property base to 100.000 apartments.