Whimstay secures $10m in equity financing
US: Last-minute vacation rental marketplace Whimstay has secured $10 million in equity financing.
The investment is set to fund key new hires and development of new products and features focused on search experience, guest engagement, more integrated dynamic pricing, flexibility for guests, loyalty and rewards programmes, ancillary fintech products, and multiple conversion initiatives that will generate more bookings for property managers during periods that typically experience lower occupancy rates and RevPAR.
Whimstay says that it is uniquely positioned to book nights that would have otherwise gone unrented, with the lost revenue for property managers and owners representing a $60 billion market opportunity.
Whimstay aims to provide travellers with the best deals on vacation rentals across North America. For property managers and owners, the company seeks to offer better economics, more control over the customer experience, robust reporting and reconciliation, reduced dependency on larger, less user-friendly, and more expensive channels, and, most importantly, generate incremental bookings, revenue and profitability above and beyond the property manager’s direct bookings and those from other channels.
Whimstay CEO David Weiss said: “Closing our financing amidst a myriad of extremely challenging market conditions is a testament to the calibre of our amazing team, our differentiated product offering, the quality of our partner and customer relationships, the size of our market opportunity, and the confidence our investors have in our ability to strengthen our position as the leading vacation rental marketplace focused on booking last-minute stays.
“Propelled by our proprietary marketing engine, product features and functionality, and unique go-to-market strategy, we’re able to attract incremental guests and generate incremental bookings for property managers and owners. We complement a property manager’s overall distribution strategy by providing specific capabilities and conducting specific types of missions, all focused on booking last-minute stays.
“As a result, bookings on Whimstay are up 7x YTD vs. the same period last year, and March was our highest booking month in the company’s history. Guest traffic and bookings are further accelerating due to our recent integration into Google Vacation Rentals, giving us access to millions of potential guests.”
Whimstay currently offers vacation rental homes and condos in the United States, Canada and Mexico, and is adding new properties and destinations every day.
The company previously raised more than $1 million in crowdfunding through StartEngine last March to power its growth in the United States.
Investors in the pre-Series A investment round were not disclosed.
