European venture capital firm Balderton Capital led the round, which also included backing from existing investor Index Ventures. In April, the online accommodation booking service secured $2.7 million (£1.6 million) from venture capital firm Index Ventures in a Series A financing round. The business, which has offices in Switzerland, Portugal and the UK, launched in January last year.

Tim Bunting of Balderton Capital will join Neil Rimer of Index Ventures and HouseTrip founders Arnaud Bertrand and Junjun Chen on the board. According to a statement from Index, the funding will be used to develop the functionality of the website, increase the number of holiday apartments on offer and ramp up marketing.

HouseTrip allows guests to find and book villas and apartments for short-term, while hosts can list their properties free-of-charge. It offers more than 55,000 holiday apartments in 350 destinations worldwide.

Co-founder and chief executive Arnaud Bertrand says, ‘With this new investment, we now have the ability to get closer to our vision of making HouseTrip a powerful alternative to hotels around the world.

‘HouseTrip thinks that travellers genuinely prefer booking a fully-furbished apartment rather than a hotel when going on holiday – but are given too many stumbling blocks when planning their trips. Balderton and Index Ventures’ investment will allow HouseTrip to provide consumers with a product that will make apartment rentals easier, quicker and safer than ever before.’

Tim Bunting, a Balderton Capital partner, adds, ‘Balderton chose to invest in HouseTrip.com because we felt HouseTrip offered the best model in a rapidly growing field. HouseTrip has the vision and passion to win the race in this sector.’