Onefinestay’s Greg Marsh and Tim Davey clinch Golden Gun award at Young Guns 2017

2012 Young Guns Greg Marsh and Tim Davey, founders of luxury online home rental service Onefinestay, have been bestowed with the prestigious Golden Gun title at the Young Guns 2017 awards – the annual celebration of 30 talented young entrepreneurs behind the UK’s most exceptional fast-growth businesses.

The Golden Gun title recognises the exceptional achievements of one Young Gun alumni member from any of its last 15 Cohorts.

Click here to view the Young Guns Class of 2017.

Launched in 2010, Onefinestay enables travellers to stay in exclusive private homes around the world, looking after everything from marketing and insurance, to guest screening, housekeeping and maintenance with its personal, tailored service.

Marsh and Davey have scaled the company significantly over the last six years since being named Young Guns and the company now operates a network of over 3,000 properties in nine global cities including London, New York, Paris, Los Angeles and Rome.

In 2016, Onefinestay was acquired in a £117m deal by French Hotel Group AccorHotels, with a further £50m made available for international expansion.

The pair follow in the footsteps of Dr Ben Medlock MBE and Jon Reynolds MBE, founders of innovative keyboard app SwiftKey, which was itself snapped up in a major acquisition by a global brand. Microsoft bought the company for a reported $250m in early 2016.

They also join an illustrious roster of high-profile names that make up the Golden Guns alumni including BrewDog founders James Watt and Martin Dickie – which became a unicorn this year following a £100m investment – and Notonthehighstreet.com’s Holly Tucker.

Robert Leigh from DeVono Cresa – a Young Guns sponsor – presented the award to Onefinestay co-founder Demetrios Zoppos, who collected the award on behalf of Marsh and Davey and shared the inspiring story behind the brand’s success.

The Young Guns Class of 2017 consisted of 40 entrepreneurs, as well as another 11 co-founders that made the Five to Watch list. The 30 companies have collectively raised more than £204m and employ a total of 1,210 people between them. 17 have turned a profit and eight are already trading internationally.