TripAdvisor Exceeds 200K Holiday Rental Property Listings with Global Partnerships

News provided by

Nov 16, 2011, 05:49 ET

LONDON, November 16, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

World's Largest Travel Site Partners with Interhome, Stayz, Toprural and AKENA Technologies to Offer Even More Rental Property Choices and Reviews to Travellers Worldwide

TripAdvisor®, the world's largest travel site*, today announces that it will exceed 200,000 holiday rental property listings following partnership deals with several leading holiday rental websites around the globe, including Interhome, Stayz, Toprural and AKENA Technologies (which operates MediaVacances.com). TripAdvisor's aim is to offer travellers a worldwide list of properties, selected by locals with candid reviews. These partnerships expand TripAdvisor's inventory, and add to the premier FlipKey and Holiday Lettings listings presently available on the website.

TripAdvisor holiday rental partners gain visibility in front of TripAdvisor's more than 50 million unique monthly visitors*. As part of these partnerships, travellers will be able to make a comprehensive search across inventory from other websites in a single display on TripAdvisor and gain the assurance of traveller reviews when they are planning their holidays.

"We are thrilled to partner with these leading holiday rental sites, as each brings exceptional properties and a tremendous amount of local market expertise to the TripAdvisor community. Our goal is to offer travellers the best listings from partners who know the locations best," said Christine Petersen, president of TripAdvisor for Business. "Our partnership with these global brands demonstrates our commitment to holiday rentals as an important accommodation option for travellers, and we're looking to partner with elite holiday rental companies worldwide with the aim of enhancing the traveller experience."

"The partnership Interhome has formed with TripAdvisor helps travellers around the world discover and stay at the finest apartments and villas our site has to offer," said Simon Lehmann, CEO of Interhome AG. "We have excellent property listings and we're pleased to gain incredible exposure through TripAdvisor."

TripAdvisor has formed holiday rental inventory partnerships with the following companies:

Interhome: Based in Switzerland, Interhome is a leading provider of quality holiday apartments and villas in Europe.

The Stayz Group: The Stayz Group is the market leader in holiday rentals in Australia. With more than 40,000 properties to choose from, the brands within the Stayz Group portfolio provide travellers with a convenient way to search and book the largest selection of holiday rental accommodation in Australia, with properties in over 1,200 locations Australia-wide.

Toprural: Based in Spain, Toprural is a leading rural accommodation search engine, whose goal is to promote rural tourism in Europe.

AKENA Technologies: Based in France, AKENA Technologies operates C2C holiday rental websites in major European countries.

In the coming months, inventory from each of these partners is expected to begin rolling out on TripAdvisor's English-language domains, as well as on its Spain domain. As part of these partnerships, every property detail page will display the respective partners' brands. For more information on how to become a TripAdvisor rental partner, please send an inquiry to [email protected].

"As Australia's trusted leader of the holiday rental industry, the Stayz Group is delighted to announce this partnership with TripAdvisor," said Anton Stanish, General Manager, the Stayz Group Travel, Fairfax Media Marketplaces. "Through this partnership we are now able to offer our property owners access to a wider distribution of locations in the U.S. and Spain, and also enable TripAdvisor's broad user-base access to the diverse range of unique and affordable properties we have available in Australia."

About Interhome

Switzerland-based Interhome specialises in the rental of more than 32,000 quality holiday apartments, homes and chalets in 29 countries worldwide. In 2010, the company welcomed 560,000 holiday guests and recorded a net yield of CHF 206.9 million. Interhome is headquartered in Glattbrugg/Zurich and is a 100% subsidiary of Hotelplan Holding. In turn, Hotelplan Holding is a 100% subsidiary of Migros, Switzerland's largest retail supermarket chain, based in Zurich.

About the Stayz Group

The Stayz Group is the number 1 holiday rental group in Australia , with over 40,000 property listings from over 1,400 locations throughout Australia
The Stayz Group is visited by over 1 million unique browsers per month (* Nielsen Market Intelligence, October 2011)
The Stayz Group has over 800,000 subscribers to the Stayz, TakeABreak and rentahome e-newsletters
The Stayz Group offers Australian property owners an opportunity to list their rental properties online and make the most of their investment

About Toprural

The company was founded in July 2000 by founder and CEO, François Derbaix. Currently, Toprural has the largest rural accommodation offering in Europe and is the leading rural tourism site in Spain, where it brings together more than the 60% of the total supply of rural accommodations. Toprural receives 1.5 million visitors monthly and has a very proactive community of travellers that share their experiences in rural tourism (more than 200,000 reviews). The company offers over 50,000 rural accommodations in 10 European countries.

About AKENA technologies

AKENA Technologies, based in France, is one of Europe's leading owner direct holiday rental marketplaces, with multiple national websites, such as MediaVacances.com (France), MediaVacanze.com (Italy), MediaVacaciones.com (Spain), MediaVakanties.com (Netherlands) and MediaFerias.com (Portugal). The company places great emphasis on accommodation quality control based on renter reviews. It offers owners a high ROI, thanks to the large number of enquiries and low subscription fee.

AKENA Technologies operates additional websites, which give owners' listings even greater exposure. VillascOpic.com is a revolutionary concept that allows visitors to explore and discover a destination using 3D bird's-eye view technologies, before booking a conveniently located holiday rental. Ski websites such as Winter-Sports.com (UK), Sports-Hiver.com (France), Sport-Invernali.com (Italy) and Esquiland.com (Spain) generate strong ski accommodation demand, thanks to their high quality and relevant skiing and ski resort-dedicated content.

About TripAdvisor

TripAdvisor® is the world's largest travel site, enabling travellers to plan and have the perfect trip. TripAdvisor offers trusted advice from real travellers and a wide variety of travel choices and planning features (including Flights search, TripAdvisor Mobile and Instant Personalization) with seamless links to booking tools.

TripAdvisor® Media Group, operated by TripAdvisor LLC, attracts more than 65 million unique monthly visitors* across 19 popular travel brands**. TripAdvisor-branded sites make up the largest travel community in the world, with more than 50 million unique monthly visitors***, 20 million members, and over 50 million reviews and opinions. The sites operate in 30 countries worldwide****, including China under daodao.com. TripAdvisor also operates TripAdvisor for Business, a dedicated division that provides the tourism industry access to TripAdvisor's millions of monthly visitors. The division includes Business Listings, which allows hoteliers to connect directly to millions of researching travellers, and Holiday Rentals, which helps property managers and individual home owners list their properties and showcase hotel alternatives.

TripAdvisor Media Group websites have been recognized as top travel resources in 2010 by Conde Nast Traveller, Good Housekeeping, TIME magazine and Travel + Leisure.

TripAdvisor Media Group generated $486 million in revenue in 2010. TripAdvisor and the sites comprising the TripAdvisor Media Group are operating companies of Expedia, Inc. (NASDAQ: EXPE).

TripAdvisor and the TripAdvisor logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of TripAdvisor LLC in the U.S. and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

*Source: comScore Media Metrix for TripAdvisor Media Group Sites, Worldwide, August 2011

** In addition to TripAdvisor, The TripAdvisor Media Group of websites includes: http://www.airfarewatchdog.com, http://www.bookingbuddy.com, http://www.cruisecritic.com, http://www.everytrail.com, http://www.familyvacationcritic.com, http://www.flipkey.com, http://www.holidaylettings.co.uk, http://www.holidaywatchdog.com, http://www.independenttraveler.com, http://www.onetime.com, http://www.seatguru.com, http://www.sniqueaway.com, http://www.smartertravel.com, http://www.travel-library.com, http://www.travelpod.com, http://www.virtualtourist.com, http://www.whereivebeen.com, and http://www.kuxun.cn.