Big investment coming in to the vacation rental market once again with UK-based HouseTrip raising $40 million in Series C funding from Accel Partners.
The latest injection comes less than a year after the company secured a $17 million round from Index Ventures and Balderton Capital.
It puts the total amount raised by HouseTrip close to $60 million in just short of three years.
Index and Balderton have also participated in the round, HouseTrip says.
Since the November 2011 capital raise, HouseTrip has more than doubled the number of properties available on the site from 55,000 to 130,000.
So what will the company do with its $40 million?
Co-founder and CEO Arnaud Bertrand says the money will be used to grow the company in new territories (expanding on the existing November 2011 geographic strategy), as well as investment in new products and services.
It currently has properties in 15,000 destinations around the world and claims it will have booked three million room nights by the end of this year.
With the likes of HomeAway a dominant player in North America, HouseTrip says it will focus on the European market where the sector is more fragmented.
HouseTrip says the global vacation rental industry is now a staggering $100 billion marketplace.
Bertrand adds:
“My wife and I created HouseTrip on the back of a painful experience booking a holiday rental. We knew there had to be a better way to discover and book holiday rental accommodation that was both anxiety-free and easy-to-use.”
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About Kevin May
Phenomenal stuff from HouseTrip! Congrats to the whole team. Many gave them little hope up against the Airbnb giant, but clearly they’ve carved out a smart and healthy niche with their European focus. That Big Acquisition is smelling stronger…
As a property owner, I always load my details onto startups such as Housetrip. Given this information, I looked again at it, and it’s a well put together site, and it seems some clever people with $40m agree, so I’ve just made sure my listing is as complete as it could be.
Well done.
Martin.
Congrats, HouseTrip!
Well done Housetrip!
That’s an incredible investment, they deserve all the success they get. I’m a big fan of sites like Housetrip, AirBnB and CouchSurfing. The opportunity to stay in a local’s home, often with the hosts themselves, is a brilliant way to discover a new destination. Just wish more had existed when I first set off traveling.
Always nice to see more investment in the villa rental market!