Last updated on March 30th, 2013 at 11:26 pm
My exposure to vacation rental services and websites is by no means exhaustive. I have used VRBO.com to secure stays in vacation houses in the past, scoured Craigslist for short term home rentals, and even found a timeshare sublet on redweek.com one time.
Generally speaking, I have had a very positive experience with vacation rentals, but I don’t use them often because of my loyalty to hotel points programs. Simply put, a vacation rental doesn’t allow me to earn points, accrue elite status or provide the potential for future amenities like I receive as an elite hotel guest. If I’m not earning or spending points, I feel like I am missing out on something.
This is obviously completely irrational behavior, since staying at a vacation rental often represents cost savings, more space and less distractions over a hotel stay.
Vacation Rental Services Bank over $100 Million in 2012
Now there is a new wrinkle being added to the vacation rental space that may influence my behavior even further: competition. Well, perhaps this isn’t a new concept to the industry, but new to me.
I was surprised and intrigued by a recent article on technology startup website Tech Crunch about HouseTrip Receiving $40 million in funding from a well known venture capitalist. $40 million is a lot of money to raise for any company, let alone a company specializing in rental properties.
Then as I read on in the article, it sounds as if this is actually a very common occurrence, in fact, Tech Crunch makes it look routine:
Arnaud Bertrand, HouseTrip’s young CEO and founder (he’s 27 and started the company when he was 24), tells me that the main use of the money will be to scale up its operations, as HouseTrip looks to rise up above the many, many other companies that are also going after the same market: private people who want to rent out vacation homes to tourists who don’t want to stay in a hotel, either for reasons of cost, or services or simply experience.
It turns out that this is not just an anomaly and that there are many services available for vacation rentals that are receiving major venture capital funding. They still don’t appear to be offering points and rewards, though.
Will this change my behavior? At this point, I don’t see my purchasing behavior changing as a result of this newfound knowledge, but I am intrigued by these companies and will add them to my list when looking for a specific place to stay in a new area. This will be especially useful during weeklong trips with family and friends.
Here are the services mentioned by TechCrunch and a preview of their websites:
HouseTrip
HomeAway
Flipkey From TripAdvisor
Luxury Retreats
