Information HouseTrip
What is HouseTrip?
HouseTrip SA is the company behind the website HouseTrip.com, an online marketplace for holiday rentals. Both were created in 2009.
The vision was formed after Arnaud Bertrand experienced the many unnecessary complications of the holiday rentals industry as a host and a guest. He saw the opportunity to simplify and professionalise the process by bringing it closer to the online hotel industry: with bookings requested and confirmed directly through the website instead of casual agreements by email or over the phone; simple, online payments covered by payment protection policies and standardised cancellation policies; and a modern commission model instead of old fashioned classified advertising fees.
We have won a number of awards such as VentureKick and VentureLeaders, we are a member of the Swiss National Start Up Team and we are recognised as one of Europe’s most promising start-ups. Most recently we won the Get Funded Show at the World Travel Market, held at ExCeL, London, in November 2009.
Where is the company based?
HouseTrip SA is based in Lausanne, Switzerland. Our properties are mainly in Europe and America, but hosts can post properties anywhere in the world.
Our Mission
To become a global marketplace that revolutionises the holiday rentals industry worldwide and gives people the power to travel easily and safely in private accommodations all over the world.
The Founding Team
Arnaud Bertrand
Arnaud is the CEO of HouseTrip and as such is responsible for setting the overall direction and strategy for the company as well as its day-to-day management. Arnaud attended Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne, a leading hospitality management school, and other business and entrepreneurship programs at Babson College and Harvard University.
Apart from HouseTrip, Arnaud’s interests in life include travelling, great food, reading, entrepreneurship and technology.
Stephan Wiesener
Stephan is the CTO and COO at HouseTrip. In a previous life, he co-founded Conject, the leading on-demand platform for all processes around the lifecycle of real estates. Stephan studied computer science and economics in Munich where he obtained his PhD in 1997 on the topic of the semantic web.
Stephan is fascinated by technology: he first used the Internet in 1989 and has been a geek ever since!
Dominik Suter
Dominik is HouseTrip’s VP for sales and marketing. He also attended Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne where he got his major in entrepreneurship. In a past professional life, Dominik worked in sales, in several hotels around the world as well as for a hotel-consulting firm.
Dominik is the only Swiss member of the team. His interests in life range from entrepreneurship to travel, a perfect match for HouseTrip!
Junjun Chen
Junjun is HouseTrip’s CFO and as such is the “numbers” person on the team. Junjun was raised in China and at the age of 19 decided to leave her country and study at Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne. Junjun also attended a Corporate Governance program at Harvard University during the summer.
Junjun is unequivocally fascinated about travel – she can quote any of the hundreds of travel guides she has read – and also enjoys nice food, sport and… numbers of course!