StayCanadian
Our Story
Built by a host. To empower a community.
StayCanadian was founded by Nicole Hayes — a community builder, host, and twenty-year mortgage broker who helps people navigate systems that aren't designed to work in their favour.
This platform is the result of those years: a belief that direct connection, honest pricing, and community-first thinking still have a place in Canadias travel.
What follows is that story.
Nicole & Adam Hayes, Founders — StayCanadian.
Before the Platforms, There Was a Community
In the early 2000s, long before social media, and long before global booking giants reshaped how we travel, I built one of the first digital gateways into a Canadian mountain town I loved.
VirtualFernie wasn't a listing site. It was a living, breathing community online.
Using early QuickTime technology, we created hundreds of immersive 360° virtual experiences that let visitors explore the Elk Valley from anywhere in the world — years before Google introduced Street View. We built active forums for jobs, housing, and local exchange. We created a place where people didn't just discover Fernie. They participated in it.
It was a digital town square before that concept had a name.
Twenty Years of Building Trust Through Service
VirtualFernie was eventually purchased and merged into Fernie.com, and I moved to Vancouver.
For the next two decades, I stepped away from technology and into a different kind of work: mortgage brokering. I spent those years walking alongside people through some of the most consequential financial decisions of their lives.
In mortgages learned, again and again; systems don't naturally serve the people who depend on them. Having a guide — someone genuinely in your corner — changes everything.
That has become a core value.
Meanwhile, in Travel
My husband and I built and co-host a short-term rental that gives purpose and helps support our parents' retirement.
My role has always been behind the scenes: the systems, the listings, the “computer side” of making it all work.
That front-row seat gave me an unobstructed view of how the vacation rental industry evolved. What started as community-driven discovery became dominated by large international platforms. They made some things easier, but they also introduced layers of cost, control, and put distance between hosts and guests.
The fees grew. The transparency didn't.
Today, nearly one-fifth of every booking cost leaves Canada in online travel agent fees — invisible to guests, unavoidable for hosts, and draining for the local economies those stays are meant to support.
Coming Full Circle
Wanting to improve the hosting experience for our own family, and our guests, I started thinking about direct bookings.
The problem quickly became clear: it doesn't make sense for a traveller to hop between sites checking calendars. Competing with the big platforms on their terms wasn't the answer.
The answer was to build a community where hosts work together.
To facilitate direct bookings between travellers and the real people and real places they plan to visit.
What StayCanadian Is
StayCanadian is a community of hosts, providing a discovery platform for travellers.
We don't process payments. We don't sit between hosts and guests. We don't take a cut of the booking.
Membership funds marketing that helps travellers find authentic Canadian places to stay. Connect directly with the people who have been crafting guest experiences all along.
Lower costs for travellers→better occupancy for hosts→stronger local economies
This isn't just a directory. It's a return to a more balanced way of travelling — where trust, transparency, and local connection matter again.
A digital town square, rebuilt for a new generation.
— Nicole Hayes
Founder, StayCanadian