Skift Travel News Blog

Short stories and posts about the daily news happenings around the travel industry.

Short-Term Rentals

Google Adds Last-Minute Rentals Platform Whimstay as Latest Partner

1 year ago

Google has added San Francisco-based startup Whimstay as a vacation rental partner.

Whimstay focuses on booking last-minute vacation rentals and the selling of distressed inventory — or providing discounts on vacation rentals that would otherwise go unoccupied at full retail rates.

Google will now add Whimstay’s 150,000 vacation rental properties to its travel search function. They join properties listed in the U.S. by other vacation rental partners including Uplisting, Futurestay, Eviivo, BookingPal and Bluetent.

Google also has several other global platform partners.

Whimstay claims it can offer discounted rates of 15-60 percent, usually within 21 days of the stay. It also works with Vacasa, Inntopia, Natural Retreats and Best Beach Getaways.

“Google’s platform for vacation rentals enables us to leapfrog our already strong outperformance on organic search, thereby increasing conversion in a manner that is far more profitable and capital efficient,” said Whimstay CEO David Weiss.

Whimstay also expects to add an extra 100,000 to 150,000 properties to its platform over the next 12 months.