Rentals.com Reports Increase in Local Vacation Rental Searches

ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Rentals.com, a leading online resource for single-family houses, apartments, condos and vacation properties for rent, along with Vacapedia.com today announced that the search is on for consumers looking to find an affordable vacation closer to home. Based on the latest search results, Rentals.com and Vacapedia.com predict that more people will plan vacations this summer around local tourist attractions, nearby cities and within the U.S. in order to save on travel costs.

“With Memorial Day behind us, the summer travel season is underway”

“With Memorial Day behind us, the summer travel season is underway,” said Jamie Clymer, president, Rentals.com. “Not surprisingly, the trend we’re seeing in people searching for vacation rentals on our site is telling of the economic situation the country is going through. As travelers tighten their purse strings, they are getting more resourceful with vacation options by looking for property rentals near home or within the United States.”

According to Vacapedia.com, which supplies vacation rental listings on Rentals.com, the overall number of vacation rentals booked has increased; however the destination focus has shifted. For example, the number of local and domestic vacation rental searches has increased significantly from 2008, showing close to a 350 percent increase compared to last year. Further, 15 percent of 2009’s vacation rental inquiries were for trips to Western European and Scandinavian countries, which are down from 35 percent in 2008.

This trend has also made its way abroad, as last year 32 percent of European and Asian vacationers looked for rentals in the United States. However, this number is closer to 10 percent in 2009.

More importantly, the data also indicates that consumers are still planning to take a summer vacation this year despite the challenging economy.

“The search results show that there is a growing interest among vacationers who see rental properties as a more practical accommodation over hotels,” said Ashwin Kedia, CEO and co-founder, Vacapedia.com. “Consumers may have smaller travel budgets this year, but since you can often get more space for less money and share the cost of the property rental with friends and family it becomes a budget-friendly option.”

Rentals.com has been a trusted leader in connecting landlords and renters since 1997. Its newly expanded Vacation Rentals section (vacation.rentals.com) is tailored to meet the needs of vacation renters searching for daily, weekly or weekend rates in a variety of vacation destinations. Search vacation rentals by location or search by vacation theme.

About Vacapedia.com

Vacapedia.com is the largest aggregator and distributor of quality vacation rentals worldwide. Property management companies and individual owners of vacation rentals benefit from our extremely efficient and cost effective marketing solution that exposes their properties on our growing network of high traffic websites. Consumers get access to a huge inventory of holiday rentals with real-time availability and online booking capability. Vacapedia.com is based in California and is building the largest database of vacation rentals and associated information to serve the vacation rental ecosystem.

About Rentals.com

Rentals.com is a leading national online resource for residential rentals. Millions of unique visitors use Rentals.com to search for single-family houses, apartments, condos, and vacation properties. Property owners and managers find that Rentals.com is a powerful business tool that increases rental responses and delivers accurate reporting and tracking for proven results. Working with the PRIMEDIA^® Apartments/Rentals Family of Sites, including RentalHouses.com, RentList.com and ApartmentGuide.com, Rentals.com is an extensive resource that brings prospective renters and property owners and managers together.