Vacation rental business Whimstay, with its emphasis on "last minute" travelers, operates on the idea that the cheapest time to buy or rent is when the market is not crowded. New Whimstay CEO David Weiss, who represents the company on the board of VRMA Advocacy Fund, intends to expand the company into a go-to app for deal-hungry tourists who can travel where accommodations are cheap, when they are cheap. "Roughly 50 percent of all vacation rental nights go un-rented every year," he explains. "Our mission at Whimstay is to fill those vacancies with happy travelers who purchase stays at prices they can't get anywhere else!" Weiss adds that Whimstay aims to cater to travelers looking to reserve lodgings further out than the last minute, "when property managers experience lower occupancy rates and revenue per home, such as off-seasons, pre- and post-holiday periods, weekdays leading into weekend getaway destinations, and the like." He outlines key initiatives for driving Whimstay's next growth phase: launching products and features to improve the search experience, guest engagement, and flexibility for travelers; leveraging the company's partnership with Google to draw millions of incremental travelers who likely would not find platform otherwise; expediting property acquisition across North America; and expanding into Europe.
Grit Daily (02/08/23) Peter Page