Firm hopes to raise £2m for luxury rentals expansion

A SOCIAL network for luxury holiday home rentals is looking to raise £2million in its biggest ever funding round, after notching up 10,000 members in its first year.

Stay One Degree – which counts supermodels, billionaires, Oscarwinning actors and sports stars among its members – is set to launch its second and largest fundraising in 2019 after successfully securing $1.5million (£1.2million) earlier this year.

Co-founder Thomas Bennett told reporters he wants to invest in technology and marketing to help the firm expand its 10,000-strong member base and network of more than 1,200 properties worldwide.

Stay One Degree offers discerning travellers an exclusive social network through which to rent luxury holiday homes from friends, mutual contacts and like-minded members.

Properties range from the boutique and quirky to €40,000-a-night millionaire villas complete with spas, home cinemas and teams of staff.

It has properties in the world’s most glamorous locations, with rental owners including British supermodel Jacquetta Wheeler.

Mr Bennett said the properties they take on must be awe-inspiring. “It’s about passionate owners,” he said. “We hand-pick all of our homes. It’s about what makes you smile.”

Initially set up with a small number of properties from contacts, Stay One Degree launched publicly last December and has grown 400 per cent in its first year, with aims to maintain that pace of expansion in the year ahead.