CanadaStays, a Canada-based vacation rental website, has gained an undisclosed investment from US-based online vacation rental marketplace HomeAway and US-based media company Torstar Corporation.
The investment also marks the start of a partnership between HomeAway and CanadaStays to allow users of CanadaStays to reach a larger audience through HomeAway’s system.
HomeAway is backed by Google Ventures, the venture capital investment arm of US-based internet company Google. Other investors in HomeAway include US-based venture capital firm Austin Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, Institutional Venture Partners, Trident Capital and Technology Crossover Ventures, and US-based private equity firm American Capital.
CanadaStays lists more than 220,000 properties on its website that are available for short-term rental. These include cabins, condos, fishing lodges and ski chalets.
Mark Bordo, chief executive and founder of CanadaStays, said: “The decision for HomeAway to partner with a young Canadian startup is a testament to our leadership in the Canadian travel market. CanadaStays’ supply of quality Canadian vacation rentals satisfies the demand of the HomeAway audience – together, we fill the gap.”
Jon Gray, senior vice president of the Americas at HomeAway, said: “This investment is important for HomeAway as we currently feature less than 10,000 Canadian properties. Thanks to this strategic partnership we can increase the number of Canadian vacation rentals available to HomeAway travellers while also making it easier for Canadians to access the more than one million listings on HomeAway sites.”