Many Of Us Can Find A Good Business In States Where They’re Going For Vacations.

July 17th, 2011 | by linda smit |

Danni Stor calls herself a travel addict.

She has camped in the Kalahari Desert, worked on an archeological dig in Croatia where anyone can have Croatia real estate, and sailed throughout the Caribbean. And when she travels, Stor avoids hostels, staying with locals to get an authentic experience. But Stor, a Toronto art director and designer, has not managed to travel much lately, so shes done the second-best thing.

She has rented out on occasion a room in her two-bedroom studio to visitors as a way to live vicariously as well as pay the bills. The feeble world economy has helped launch the vacation rental market where travellers hire a room, loft or house instead of staying in a hotel into a booming business. Texas-based HomeAway Incorporated, which runs 31 rental internet sites including homeaway.com and vrbo.com, raised $216 million ( U.S. ) with its initial public offering of 8,000,000 shares priced at $27 each.

The firms stock closed at $40.21 on Wed., the first day of trading on the Naz Market, after flirting as high as $42.30. That means the company is now worth about $3.2 billion. According to its SEC filings, HomeAway generated $167.9 million in money in 2010 with a net income of $16.9 million, up from 7.6 million in 2009, though like many Net based firms, its long term future isnt known.

Stor has posted her room listing, at $60 ( Canadian ) a night, on iStopOver.com, a Toronto-based start-up. Most rooms rent from $75 to $100 a night, though prices are higher in cities such as London and New York. Unlike any other websites, where homeowners pay an annual listing charge of approximately $300, hosts lists free on iStopOver. But guests are charged a fifteen per cent premium on top of their bookings, and hosts are charged a three per cent processing charge for each confirmed rental.

The Toronto firm declared this week that it has acquired competitor Vacapedia, a California company, which boosts iStopOvers listings to more 84,000 in 93 states. No monetary details are being released but it was a cash and stock deal. Anthony Lipschitz, iStopOvers Boss man who worked at Brightspark Ventures, a Toronto venture capital firm, believes this kind of holiday accommodation is the future.

When you check into a Sheraton in Shanghai or in Toronto, its just about the same experience, he claimed. Were all about providing that live like a local experience, the chance to hook up with others and get the interior track. That will mean everything from wheres the best spot to get coffee to which museum has the have to see exhibition this summer, he said.The company has received funding from Brightspark as well as others including the Ontario Developing Technologies Fund. Lipschitz expounded the company is still trying to find funding and it has no swift plans to come out of the closet.

IStopOver, which competes with Airb2b and Wimdu, doesnt pay hosts till the guests have arrived and given the accommodations the once-over. If its satisfactory, then the guest gives the host a security code, and then funds are released in twenty-four hours. If theres a problem, the site then will find alternate arrangements, though Lipschitz explains it happens occasionally. Because both parties can email and call in advance, regularly folk have a good sense of expectancies, he revealed.

When Sameer Parpia, a Toronto statistician was travelling to SA for soccers World Cup in 2010 with 3 chums, he sought out hotels initially. Hotels were sold out, and the ones that had rooms were over $300 Canadian a night, claimed Parpia, who had planned a 10-day stay in Johannesburg. They ended up booking thru iStopOver, and found a two-bedroom place for approximately $130 a night.

The girl who leased to us lived next door. She gave up tips on transport, restaurants and she had a tiny pool next door that we used, Parpia related. We had a feeling like we were boarding with relatives.

Lipschitz, who has run other tech companies, started iStopOver in 2009 just before the Vancouver Olympics. The site has just gathered more listings in Ontarios cottage country and Quebecs Eastern Townships, and intends to do nicely in the winter with more listings in Florida thanks to the Vacapedia purchase. Stor says she just likes meeting interesting people and feels safer using the internet site than posting on Craigslist. Theyve signed in. They have registered. Theres an account, she revealed.

She has had visitors from as far away as Russia and she is stayed in contact with a woman from Nova Scotia. One visitor was a skill professor from the united states, and she ended up going in town with him and another friend, dropping in at Afrofest and pedestrian Sundays in Kensington Market.

Its fun showing people around your town, Stor declared. Its a good way of being an element of the travellers community. Who knows? When I am travelling and I end up in that part of the planet, I will call them up, as reported tagza.com.

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