Vacation rental market taking off

October 30, 2008 | Online Travel

A new PhoCusWright study on the dramatic growth in the vacation rental market indicates that companies like Zonder are well positioned to overcome distribution barriers and are making this attractive rental option accessible to consumers.

The study, PhoCusWright’s Vacation Rental Marketplace: Poised for Change, reveals that the current $2.8 billion in online booking of vacation rentals represents 12 percent of overall vacation rental revenue, and that share is expected to grow to 17 percent, or $4.6 billion, by 2010.

With the launch in January of zonder.com, a vacation rental site offering real-time booking, Zonder is at the forefront in providing consumers with easy access to vacation rental inventory. Zonder, via its distribution platform, also partners with other sites, like Orbitz (vacationrentals.orbitz.com), providing the necessary tools to efficiently search through and book tens of thousands of vacation homes in North America, Central America and the Caribbean. Bookings of Zonder�s professionally managed properties are backed up by the Zonder Guarantee, which means travelers are not only getting safety and security, but peace of mind, too. Zonder.com and its partners provide services consumers can trust, run by people who stand behind the properties they represent.

The study confirms that consumers are seeing the value � more space, the convenience of kitchen facilities, enhanced privacy, amenities like pools, laundry and hot tubs, and price savings � of this fast-growing segment of the travel marketplace. In fact, according to PhoCusWright, almost half of leisure travelers now consider booking a vacation rental when researching their trip plans.

�12% of vacation rentals were booked online in 2007 compared to over half of all leisure travel that was booked online, so there�s a tremendous long-term upside to this market,� said Douglas Quinby, Senior Director, Research, at PhoCusWright. �Many consumers are frustrated by the difficulty of finding the right property, overcoming issues like a minimum required length of stay, and booking through a company they can trust. Companies that can help consumers overcome these issues will be best positioned to capture this opportunity.�

Travelers’ embrace of vacation-rental properties indicates they have come to understand that vacation rentals are competitive with or lower than hotel rates; are suited for short and lengthy stays (60 percent of vacation-rental stays are for fewer than seven nights); and can accommodate a diverse contingent of travelers � from couples, to families, to groups. The study also finds that professionally managed vacation rentals tend to have lower average daily rates (ADRs) than rent-by-owner properties.