Airbnb Alternatives Bring Luxury Into The Short-Term Rental Marketplace

European travelers have long exchanged pied-à-terres and fancy family abodes for their vacations, primed by generous time-off policies combined with the relative expense and scarcity of continental hotels. Now a host of American ventures want to be the Airbnb of the one percent, enticing the well-heeled to list plush condos and exclusive vacation properties as short-term rentals.

Expedia this year started showing properties listed on HomeAway, the largest vacation rental company by listings; the company also owns the VRBO rental site. Meanwhile, TripAdvisor has bought its way into the market with its recent deal for Vacation Home Rentals, which pushed its selection to more than 500,000 properties. Priceline’s European-based Booking.com unit has been aggressively expanding into apartments and villas in Europe and could decide to expand its offerings in the U.S. Read more...