HouseTrip will use a new funding round from Index Ventures to spearhead a plan to be the largest bookable holiday rental site on the web.
Index Ventures has invested £1.7 million (Swiss FR2.5 million) in the company, bringing the total amount ploughed in so far reaching £2.4 million).
The latest batch of funding will be used in a number of ways, but perhaps most significantly will be the company's aim to create the largest database of properties which can be booked online.
CEO Arnaud Bertrand [interview from 2009] says the company hopes to have 100,000 bookable properties on the system by the end of year.
Rental-letting giant HomeAway says it wants to have its entire database of 230,000 properties handling online payments within two and half years.
Bertrand aims to have a headstart of sorts over HomeAway by 2012 - the site currently has 10,000, will add a further 35,000 within a few months, hitting 100,000 by year-end.
HouseTrip does not have the financial and marketing muscle of HomeAway, but will spending the latest investment in a measured way, Bertrand says.
A new version of the website (pictured above) will go live this week and guest marketing will also kick in shortly.
Bertrand says fellow startup [TLabs Showcase - OneFineStay] and upmarket home letting system OneFineStay, which shares Index Ventures as an investor, may also be integrating some of its properties into HouseTrip in the future.