New PhoCusWright Study Finds Vacation Rental Market Taking Off

SALT LAKE CITY--(BUSINESS WIRE)--A new PhoCusWright study on the dramatic growth in the vacation rental market indicates that companies like Zonder, the leader in real-time, online booking of private homes, cabins, condos and villas, 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 www.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 (www.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.

“Our innovative technology and focus on professionally managed vacation rentals provide the same ease and reliability that consumers have come to expect when booking hotels on the internet,” said Bob Barnes, CEO of Zonder. “We are excited that this study confirms that our business model is on target and are pleased to be at the forefront of bringing reliability and credibility to the vacation rental marketplace, which we back up with our Zonder Guarantee,” said Barnes. Zonder’s powerful platform puts real-time vacation-rental booking capabilities at the fingertips of consumers through Zonder.com and its network of partners.

About Zonder

Based in Salt Lake City, Utah, Zonder (www.zonder.com) was the first vacation home rental distributor to offer accurate, real-time availability and online bookings. In addition to marketing an extensive portfolio of vacation homes that can be booked instantly online, Zonder bookings are backed up by the Zonder Guarantee. Only Zonder gives consumers and partners the necessary tools to efficiently search through tens of thousands of vacation home rentals and narrow their results using a variety of filtering criteria. In addition, Zonder offers partners a powerful, flexible technology platform that makes it simple to add vacation rentals to their product offerings. Founded by search industry veterans, it is the technology behind Zonder that enables its powerful search, filtering and real-time booking capabilities.