We have completed a list of the ten favorite leisure rental websites according to Alexa read-outs, reader response, and expert industry investigation. While the vacation rental industry varies tremendously between uncomplicated database platforms to more robust vacation rental reservation services, this list is meant to provide a straightforward look into this quickly growing industry and to provide viewers a foundation for future research into this industry. Please observe that this list is not in any particular arrangement and is meant merely as a reference.

Vacation Rentals By Owner – Perhaps one of the best know originators of the online vacation rental listing industry, Vacation Rentals By Owner has a huge database of private owner rental listings. Now owed by the behemoth mega-company, HomeAway.com, this is one of their many property rental brand websites. While best-known and extremely popular, the website is not without its faults. Constant criticism over listing security and property legitimacy are the primary complaints against this industry leader.

HomeAway – We couldn’t mention a few of the most popular vacation rental websites without mentioning the parent company that owns them now can we? Based upon their information listed in Crunch Base, “The HomeAway portfolio of sites includes HomeAway.com, Vacation Rentals By Owner and VacationRentals.com in the United States; HomeAway.co.uk and OwnersDirect.co.uk in the United Kingdom; HomeAway.de in Germany; Abritel.fr and Homelidays.com in France; HomeAway.es in Spain; and AlugueTemporada.com.br in Brazil. The company’s portfolio also includes HomeAwayRealEstate.com, which offers unique real estate information that highlights a vacation home’s rental income potential and destination-specific characteristics. In addition, HomeAway operates BedandBreakfast.com, a global site dedicated to finding bed-and-breakfast properties, which provides travelers with another source for unique lodging alternatives to chain hotels.” Whatever is to be said about the future of the vacation industry it’s a safe bet that HomeAway will be in the middle of it.

CyberRentals – Why stop now? Yes you are right, yet another HomeAway spin-off. Again the same premise as both CyberRentals and Vacation Rentals By Owner, CyberRentals provides yet another avenue for rental owners to list their property and to manage inventory. A clean website which follows the same patterns and guidelines as their predecessors.

AlwaysOnVacation – AlwaysOnVacation is a listing service that offers a broad array of vacation rental listings. They offer owners an advertising guarantee stating that “if you do not receive a 10 times return on your investment during the first 12 months of your initial subscription, we will extend your subscription an additional 6 months free of charge!” Although this is another listing site, it does have decent customer support both online and telephone.

Rentalo – This is a decent vacation rental listing site much aligned in the same way as the other basic listing services. Rentalo has a respectable reputation and currently offer listings worldwide. They also rank favorably in search engine results for vacation rental homes.

Vacation Rentals By Owner is possibly one of the best known industry leaders of the online vacation rental industry. Vacation Rentals By Owner has a massive array of private owner rental listings. Now owed by the huge mega-company, HomeAway.com, this is one of their many property rental brand websites.

Vacation-Renter, Inc. – We call this one the little engine that could. Extremely out-gunned on almost all levels, Vacation-Renter, Inc. has opted for a guerilla-style approach when trying to attack the vacation rental market. They do this by offering market-specific websites aimed at achieving high Google rankings and international markets. While they don’t have nearly the inventory or operating capital behind them as the others do, they do offer online booking and live telephone reservation support with their market-specific websites and appear to have been growing steadily over the past 5 years. They also offer the only industry index available to vacation rental industry insiders. Here’s rooting for the little guy!

Rentalo – Rentalo.com is a popular listing site based upon the pay-per-advertisement listing system. Just like the HomeAway family of websites, Rentalo is a simple advertising website. They have a good reputation and currently offer listings throughout the world.

FlipKey – One of the more recent vacation rental websites that have hit the web, FlipKey offers a great user interface and the power of being part of the Trip Advisor marketing machine. Probably one the cleanest and most visually appealing advertising sites, FlipKey has hit the ground running and appears to be gaining some serious leverage on the industry.

VacationRentals – Another one of HomeAway’s favorite off-spring, VacationRentals.com usually places atop leading search engines for keyword search terms, “vacation rentals”. Essentially the same assumption as Vacation Rentals By Owner, this website is a strapping advertising site for personal property owners and property managers.

Although this list cannot do the total vacation rental industry absolute justice, it does render an interesting approach towards examining the various size and kinds of organizations presently existing in today’s market. While it does appear that certain companies clearly hold an advantage when it comes to investment dollars and absolute size, there are a few a couple of prime sites that offer a different approach to renting short-term rentals. Wherever you resolve to jaunt, try doing some initial research on some of these websites and see for yourself.

Looking to find the best deal on San Francisco vacation rentals, then visit www.GoldenGateVacations.com to find the best advice on San Francisco attractions for you.

categories: vacation rental industry,vacation rentals,business,travel,tourism,industry,economy