Holiday accommodation site Tripvillas has inked deal wherein its listings will be promoted on HomeAway, a NASDAQ listed international online marketplace for holiday rentals. Headquartered in Singapore, Tripvillas was started in February 2010 to provide user owned properties as an option for rental families travelling in India, through its wholly owned subsidiary company, Tripvillas India Pvt. Ltd. Later, the company expanded its presence to South Asia, Australia, Africa and Europe and presently claims to have over 12,000 listings. Presently, Tripvillas has 2336 listings from India, most of which have been acquired through word of mouth and engagement with real estate developments, according to Roshan D'Silva, the company's CEO & Founder. Tripvillas had received a funding of over $1 million from Neoteny Labs, Blume Ventures, MENA Venture Investments and other angel investors in March 2012. In India, Tripvillas has offices in Gurgaon and Mumbai and plans to open operations in Bangalore as well. The company, which competes with Oravel.com, an online short stay accommodation (bread and breakfast) site, monetizes by taking a commission from property owners on bookings, as well as via paid premium listings. In India, it also competes with the likes of Airbnb (which had launched its operations last year), and also Bnb4delhi. D'Silva told MediaNama that Indian properties account for 30% of their revenue, and 15% of the Indian owners upgrade to premium listings. The company receives about 80 inquiries, and around 7 to 8 bookings a day with 30% of their global customers being repeat customers.
