Diego Saez-Gil, InBed.me's cofounder and CEO (twitter.com)

Everyone knows that opting for hostels instead of hotels can save you tons of money on travel costs, but for the more anxiety-prone among us, sometimes the fear of having to sleep three feet away from a stranger can outweigh a hostel's benefits. InBed.me, a New York-based social booking site for hostels, beds and couches, wants to take the terrifying mystery out of hostel stay by allowing users to meet and interact with others who will be traveling and staying in the same hostels.

InBed.me offers the option to sign up for the site using Facebook. Once you book your hostel or couch trip, your picture appears under the property so that other users can see the kinds of characters that typically stay at such a venue. The concept reminds us of Airbnb--except with more hostels and a stronger emphasis on a trip's social component.

The founders of InBed.me have a lot of experience globe-trotting and hostel-staying; they all originally met in a hostel in Brooklyn before starting the company. Recently, InBed.me announced that they've raised $1.2M in seed funding from a group of international investors. According to the press release:

The new funding will enable inBed.me to grow the team in order to accelerate the development of the product by adding more social features, integrating with other social networks and developing the mobile app, as well as expanding their inventory of properties in South America with special focus in Brazil, and to invest in marketing to grow their base of users. InBed.me will focus in the initial stage in American young travelers traveling to South America, which is a growing destination among backpackers and young travelers.

It makes sense that the group would focus on South America--it is a hot spot for young travelers--but also because cofounder and CEO Diego Saez-Gil is originally from Argentina, and his cofounder and CTO Alex Torrenegra is from Colombia.

"For us being a travel company, we need to be global from day one," Mr. Saez-Gil told Betabeat email.

That seed money should help expand their reach, but what are they going to do about that godawful company name?