Luxury Rentals from HomeAway® Becomes Largest Luxury-Focused Vacation Rental Website in the World

Luxury rental site marks significant growth as demand for luxury travel rises

AUSTIN, TX (PRWEB) October 23, 2014

HomeAway, Inc. AWAY, the world's leading online vacation rental marketplace, today announced Luxury Rentals from HomeAway now hosts the largest collection of high-end vacation rentals available in one place. The site, which offers travelers the ultimate in luxury accommodations, achieves this milestone one year after its initial launch.

Curated by the international luxury travel experts at Andrew Harper – best known for their luxury travel publication, Andrew Harper's Hideaway Report – Luxury Rentals from HomeAway now boasts more than 4,500 luxury rentals globally, with properties in more than 40 countries and on every continent except Antarctica. It offers access to the best in accommodations – ranging from villas to estates – with standout amenities such as gourmet kitchens, cinemas, wine cellars and helicopter landing pads, as well as access to private yachts and equestrian centers.

The growth of the HomeAway® luxury site comes at a time where the demand for luxury travel continues to rise. A new report from MMGY Global reveals twenty percent of affluent travelers – identified as those with an annual household income of $125,000 or more – plan to take more vacations in the year ahead. (1)

Listings on Luxury Rentals from HomeAway are carefully cultivated to give travelers an easy way to discover exceptional properties. Each property undergoes a comprehensive evaluation by Andrew Harper using a proprietary rating system before being approved for the site. This 75-point luxury screening process evaluates attributes such as price, services, location, amenities and more to ensure the resulting inventory are the ultimate accommodations.

Less than one percent of HomeAway's one million live listings are on its luxury site. For comparison, nearly half of the listings on Luxury Rentals from HomeAway have five or more bedrooms, whereas on HomeAway.com the houses have three bedrooms on average. Daily rates also vary significantly on each site; the luxury site's daily rates average $1,800 while on HomeAway.com the average rates are $228 per night. (2)

“The quick growth in listings and traveler demand for Luxury Rentals from HomeAway shows the strength of the luxury market and the need for an ultimate resource in truly exceptional vacation accommodations,” says Brian Sharples, CEO of HomeAway. “As the vacation rental industry continues to grow, we are dedicated to creating curated collections to make it even easier for travelers to find exactly what they are looking for anywhere in the world.”

Luxury Rentals from HomeAway also provides an additional marketing channel for owners and property managers with high-end vacation rental properties looking to access HomeAway's audience of highly targeted, experience-focused travelers.

1) Portrait of Affluent Travelers – Sept. 4, 2014
2) HomeAway.com Customer Satisfaction Tracker – Q1 2014 Quarterly Report

About HomeAway
HomeAway, Inc. based in Austin, Texas, is the world's leading online marketplace for the vacation rental industry, with sites representing approximately one million paid listings of vacation rental homes in 190 countries. Through HomeAway, owners and property managers offer an extensive selection of vacation homes that provide travelers with memorable experiences and benefits, including more room to relax and added privacy, for less than the cost of traditional hotel accommodations. The company also makes it easy for vacation rental owners and property managers to advertise their properties and manage bookings online. The HomeAway portfolio includes the leading vacation rental websites HomeAway.com, VRBO.com 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 and Toprural.es in Spain; AlugueTemporada.com.br in Brazil; HomeAway.com.au in Australia; and Bookabach.co.nz in New Zealand. Asia Pacific short-term rental site, travelmob.com, is also owned by HomeAway.

About Andrew Harper
Free of advertising since its inception in June 1979, Andrew Harper's Hideaway Report is a private monthly publication for sophisticated travelers. The selection of hotels, resorts and restaurants for inclusion in this publication is made on a completely independent basis, with Andrew Harper, LLC paying full rate for all meals, lodging and related travel expenses. Andrew Harper and his editors travel incognito to write candid and unbiased travel reviews for a subscription service, which provides personalized travel-planning assistance, bespoke tours and valuable travel privileges to its subscribers. For more information about Andrew Harper, please visit AndrewHarper.com.

For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2014/10/prweb12270254.htm