In recent times there has been an explosion in the number of sites advertising vacation rentals, with new sites opening up almost on a weekly basis. These sites hope to be able to capitalize on the growth in the number of people seeking to rent their vacation property “by owner” on the internet. They charge a modest annual fee to the owner (usually about $100), with a view to signing up thousands of owners to create an apparently lucrative stream of income.

But can the market support this explosion in the number of vacation rentals sites?

Leading vacation rentals industry analysts, Compare Owner Holiday Rentals recently completed an analysis of the Vacation Rentals industry, to determine how the industry is likely to develop. Among the conclusions they reached is that the vacation rentals industry is heading for a period of consolidation.

“Although is it very easy to set up a vacation rentals site”, said Kevin Graham, Managing Director of Compare Owner Holiday Rentals (COHR), “Turning it in a profitable business is much harder than most people think”.

Most new vacation rentals sites start off by offering free trials to owners, varying from 6 months up to 3 years, in order to build up the number of listings on their vacation rentals site. The hope is that, once established, the vacation rental site will generate enough bookings from renters to persuade the owners to eventually turn these free trials into paid subscriptions.

“However, attracting renters to visit your site is getting increasingly harder”, says Graham “And marketing costs can be much higher than anticipated.”

Using the classic model developed by Michael Porter, COHR looked at the fundamentals of the vacation rentals industry to evaluate the inherent attractiveness of running a vacation rentals site. Four out of the five factors evaluated (including the low barriers to entry) indicate that profitability is likely to be low, with the only mitigating factor being that the overall market for vacation rentals is growing.

In such an environment, it is likely that over time, the vacation rentals industry will consolidate. Indeed recently, there has already been some consolidation among the established sites. Last year, the WVR Group purchased several of the larger vacation rentals sites, including Cyberrentals, A1vacations, Greatrentals and Holiday-Rentals.com, positioning itself for an industry leadership battle with VRBO, the original and largest vacation rentals site.

Large vacation rental sites can use their critical mass and economies of scale to generate a competitive advantage over the smaller sites. They have the resources to invest in marketing and technology to attract both owners and renters.

Hence, to be successful, smaller and newer vacation rentals sites will need to differentiate themselves from the larger vacation rentals sites.

“Smaller vacation rentals sites will need to find their own niche, possibly based on geography or demographics, in order to be profitable”, concludes Graham.

Compare Owner Holiday Rentals provides a guide to choosing the best vacation rentals and holiday rentals websites.

Mar 3rd 2006 :A new way to compare visitor traffic on vacation rentals web sites.

There are literally hundreds of vacation rental sites that you can use to advertise your vacation rental property, varying from large, well established sites, to smaller sites that focus on a particular geography or niche market. However, with so many sites to choose from, what vacation rental web sites will bring enquiries and bookings for your particular vacation rental property?

Most vacation rental sites don’t publish statistics on visitor numbers and hence assessing visitor number to a particular site is difficult. However, traffic estimates can be made based upon statistical samples. Two useful resources are Alexa.com, which ranks sites based upon the estimated traffic, and trafficestimate.com, which estimates the number of visitors to a web site in the last 30 days.

However, estimating the overall number of visitors to a vacation rental web site is not enough. Although the overall number of visitors that a vacation rental site gets is important, what’s more important is the number of visitors will view your listing on that site.

Compare Owner Holiday Rentals ( http://www.compareownerholidayrentals.com) has published a method that allows you to compare the traffic on different vacation rental sites. Using estimates of visitors per month from trafficestimate.com, combined with the number of properties listed on each vacation rental site, you can calculate the average number of visitors that each property listed on the vacation rental site will receive.

“Some people tend to assume that the larger sites will automatically guarantee more viewings and hence more enquiries and bookings for your vacation rental property,” said Kevin Graham, Managing Director of Compare Owner Holiday Rentals. “However, if the number of listings on a vacation rental site is large, the average number of visitors that view each listing can actually be relatively small.”

Compare Owner Holiday Rentals selected 10 of the leading vacation rental sites to test out the methodology. The results varied from a high of 113 visitors /month on a1vacations, to a low of 27 visitors/month on both VRBO and Vacationrentals.

“This method is just one indicator you should look at when evaluating a vacation rental site,” said Graham.

There are a large number of factors that influence whether visitors to a particular vacation rental web site will view your vacation rental, then make an enquiry and finally confirm a booking. These include factors that the vacation rental web site controls, (such as the type of visitors it attracts and how easy it is to generate multiple enquiries without a lot of re-keying), factors that you the vacation rental owner control (such as the pricing and attractiveness of your listing), and some shared factors (such as the number of similar “competing” properties and their placing in the vacation rental site searches).

“However, all else being equal, vacation rental web sites with higher average visitors per listing are likely to generate more enquiries than those with lower average visitor numbers. This is certainly a factor you should consider when evaluating a particular vacation rental web site” said Graham.

COHR provides a guide to choosing the best vacation rental sites. For further details, please see Compare Owner Holiday Rentals .

Jan 20th 2006 : Research from Compare Owner Holiday Rentals indicates Vacation Rentals Owners should list on at least 3 “paid” sites to optimize bookings.

With the growth in the number of people owning vacation property, the market for securing renters has become increasingly competitive. There are literally hundreds of vacation rental sites that owners can use to advertise their vacation rental property, varying from very well established to brand new sites. These vacation rental sites usually charge an annual fee (normally in the range of $100 to $150) for a classified listing on their site. Owners then handle all enquiries and bookings themselves. However, how many sites should an owner pay for in order to optimize their rental bookings?

Based upon research by Compare Owner Holiday Rentals ( http://www.compareownerholidayrentals.com) 96% of owners use “paid” vacation rentals sites, with 65% listing on 3 or more sites.

“The number of enquiries and bookings an owner will get from a particular vacation rentals site listing varies widely and owners are well advised to hedge their bets by listing on several sites”, said Kevin Graham, Managing Director of Compare Owner Holiday Rentals. “Even the same property on the same site may get widely varying results from season to season depending on variations in that site’s popularity or the number of competing properties listed on that site.”

Compare Owner Holiday Rentals also questioned owners on their use of “free” vacation rentals sites. These vary from permanently free sites (usually with an option to upgrade to a “paid” ad with more features), to sites that offer free trial periods followed by a paid subscription. Many owners are skeptical of the value of placing listings on free sites and several commented that they are simply not worth the hassle. However, 86% of owners list on at least one free site and 36% on more than five!

“It is probably worth listing on at least some of these free sites as well, particularly those that offer free trials, “said Graham. “Don’t expect the same performance as your paid listings, but they may help fill some empty slots in your calendar.”

COHR provides a guide to choosing the best vacation rental sites. For further details, please see Compare Owner Holiday Rentals .

Jan 2nd, 2006 : Vacation Rentals Home Owners can now easily compare Vacation Rentals websites!

With the launch of Compare Owner Holiday Rentals, ( http://www.compareownerholidayrentals.com ) owners of Vacation Rentals can now easily compare the features and pricing of more than 50 of the leading Vacation Rentals advertising sites. Information is provided on how much it costs to advertise on each Vacation Rentals site, the number of listings each site contains, the Google page rank of each site and whether or not a “free trial” period is offered. There are also reviews of many of the Vacation Rentals sites, including key features for owners and renters, Alexa traffic ranking and comments from other Vacation Rentals Home Owners.

“For the first time, Vacation Rentals Home Owners can go to one place for all the key information they need to decide where to advertise their Vacation Rental property on the web” said Kevin Graham, Managing Director of Compare Owner Holiday Rentals. “They can also get a list of “FREE” sites on which to advertise their Vacation Rental. “

With growth in the number of people owning Vacation Rental property, there has also been an increase in the number of Vacation Rentals websites that allow owners to advertise their vacation home to prospective renters. A recent survey conducted by Compare Owner Holiday Rentals indicated that Vacation Rentals home owners find more than 75% of their renters through advertising on such sites. Although there are some large established players, the market is getting increasingly competitive with new sites being launched on an almost weekly basis.

“In order to understand where to list your property, you need to be able to research which of those from the large number available will be most suited to your particular property. The information on Compare Owner Holiday Rentals allows owners to do just that,” said Graham.

Some sites specialize in specific geographic areas and Compare Owner Holiday Rentals features sites that focus on the US, Europe, France and Spain in particular.

Compare Owner Holiday Rentals ( http://www.compareownerholidayrentals.com ) provides a guide to choosing the best vacation rentals and holiday owner rentals websites. For more information, please contact Kevin Graham +353-87-634-9028.