HouseTrip.com is one of Europe’s largest holiday apartment booking website. The concept is simple: when taking a trip, anyone can book a whole apartment or villa for the price of a hotel room.
Established in late 2009, HouseTrip lets homeowners put up their holiday homes for rental but tries to differentiate itself by removing the need for guests to negotiate directly– no more international money transfer – and removing the administrative hassle for both parties.
HouseTrip takes a commission at the point of rental, while the guest’s payment is not released to the owner until two days after the beginning of the rental period giving the holiday maker greater peace of mind.
Last year HouseTrip saw 8,000 properties listed on the site in total with over 50,000 nights booked. In 2011, the company is expecting another 22,000 properties to be added to the site.