rentalo
Vacation Rentals Market: Comparing Top Websites 
According to the NEW YORK POST (March 28, 2010), “A RISE in the popularity of vacation rentals has spurred a whole host of new Web sites. Here are the three you need to know about.”
 
 
Rentalo
Homeaway
Vrbo
Flipkey
Annual subscription cost
from $199/yr
from $329/yr
from $349/yr
from $299/yr
Monthly reach / Site visitors1
100+ Million
2.7 Million
(part of homeaway)
23.3 Million
Newsletter reach6
1.3 Million
Not available4
Not available4
Not available4
Number of photos included in subscription
Unlimited
12
5
Unlimited
Video capability (e.g. youtube videos)
Yes
Not available4
Yes
Not available4
Destination-based leads5
Available
Not available4
Not available4
Not available4
Live support: Toll-Free, Live-chat
Both Available
Not available4
Not available4
Live-chat only
Special Offers2
Included
(no extra cost)
Cost extra
($15 to $20 per week)
Cost extra
($15 to $20 per week)
Included
(no extra cost)
Automatic Offers3
Available
Not available4
Not available4
Not available4
Trial or Free Listing Period7
Available
(unlimited trial)
Not available4
Not available4
Available
(limited to 60 days)
Better Business Bureau (BBB) A+ rating
Not available4
Not available4
Not available4

Notes

(1) Source: Rentalo: Estimated traveler's reach via Rentalo.com and partner websites, Sept 2010; Homeaway website, May 2010; FlipKey's marketing publications, also includes TripAdvisor.com's traffic, August 2010.

Rentalo.com is an 12+ years old site, ranked site in the search engines, and receiving near 1 million visits from all the main search engines on highly targeted traffic.
Google's (organically ranked) ranked terms: vacation rentals (p1), lodgings (p1), vacation lodgings (p1), vacation rentals (p2), vacation homes (p2)
Yahoo.com - vacation rentals (p1), orlando vacation rentals (p1)
Bing.com - vacation rentals (p1), vacation lodgings (p2)
Note: search results vary greatly from day to day on the search engines. These keywords were ranked on 5-28-2011.

Below are examples of Rentalo inventory showing in some of our partner sites:
Yahoo Travel, AOL Travel, Orbit's Away.com

(2) Special Offers is a feature that, although it varies in functionality from site to site, it provides owners with a proactive marketing tool to promote special rates, and last-minute discounts.

(3) Automatic Offers (Auto Offers) is a Rentalo’s unique time-saving feature that allows owners to send instant offers to travelers when inquiring on their property or destination. Auto Offers are available to Premium & Sponsor listings.
(4) “Not available” means that the feature is not offered, or no information is available on the site about this feature or functionality.
(5) Destination-based inquiries is a Rentalo’s unique feature that allows owners to broaden their reach by also receiving inquiries from travelers interested in a similar place to stay within their destination. Rentalo also provides inquiry filters to narrow down these destination-based leads to meet each owner’s lodging and pricing terms and requirements.

(6) Rentalo's monthly newsletters reach 1.3 million registered travelers (data as of August, 2010).

(7) Rentalo offers a free listing subscription with no time limitations. Prospect clients get a free listing, receive and reply to inquiries from traveler via Rentalo. The only restriction is that Rentalo does not allow any direct contact information between travelers and prospect clients, however, via Rentalo's messagin platform, owners can send unlimited offers and messages to travelers., and travelers can reply to messages and even send 'booking requests' to owners. Homeaway and vrbo do not offer any form of trial or free listings. Flipkey's trial is limited to 60 days.

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