Vacatia Launches Rental Marketplace for Resort Residences, Amid Growing Demand for Vacation Rentals

SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwired - Nov 16, 2015) - Vacatia, the resort marketplace for vacationing families, announced today, the public launch of the first resort rental marketplace. The first of its kind marketplace features search results and instant booking for resort residences at dozens of the leading hospitality, timeshare and premier independent resorts. Vacatia is working with carefully selected resorts to feature rentals of their resort residences, where originally access to these resort-condominium complexes was exclusively through purchase options such as whole, fractional, or timeshare ownership.

Vacatia, which secured an $8.8 million Series A funding round in April, led by Javelin Venture Partners, is guided by a senior executive team that has created industry-leading travel, logistics, and computer e-commerce businesses, developed "sharing economy" marketplaces for event tickets and private jets, and built multiple successful resort/vacation club businesses.

"We exist to make family vacations better and help family resorts thrive," said Caroline Shin, CEO and Co-Founder of Vacatia. "We are driven by the belief that resorts are the perfect accommodations for vacationing family and friends, and our team is working hard to create the easiest, most trusted way for families to discover and book the best resort residence rentals."

Outside of Vacatia, searching for a family resort rental requires wading through listings scattered among local brokers, offline advertising, general or industry-specific classified ad websites, or simply buried among hotel results on a travel site or private homes on vacation rental sites. It is a fragmented and inefficient experience where the benefits of resorts aren't adequately brought to life.

"Vacation rentals of private homes have dramatically increased as more consumers are voting for space and utility, over hotel services," said Erik Blachford, an early investor in Vacatia and former CEO of Expedia. "The new Vacatia rentals marketplace, by focusing solely on resort residences, offers the best of both worlds for vacationing families who can now easily find accommodations that combine home-like amenities, hotel-like professional services, fun and relaxing resort amenities and locations."

Vacatia is for Family and Friends
During a months-long test period, Vacatia guests booked more than 2,500 room nights at resort residences, while providing valuable feedback to improve the company's rental marketplace. 79% of Vacatia's guests mentioned they were vacationing with family or friends (61% family, 18% friends) and 23% specifically noted they were "bringing kids." For many, staying in a resort residence with a family room, one or more bedrooms, kitchen, washer/dryer, proved to be the preferred choice versus the varying quality and lack of professional services of many private home rentals.

Vacatia Features Hitting Close to Home

• The Vacatia rentals marketplace provides up-to-date resort and residence photos -- large interior, exterior and amenities shots -- and information to help guests discover their "perfect" resort. Star ratings are also displayed for each resort.
• Vacatia Guest Care is available online or over the phone, answering questions guests may have about resorts, the residences and amenities, or nearby activities. Vacatia Guest Care also handles large group and special requests, as well as confirming accommodations with the resorts.
• The "Vacatia Value" rating highlights when resort rates are actually less than (sometimes by more than 50%) the rates of local hotels with comparable star ratings for the same number of guests. Guests are pleasantly surprised to see that multi-bedroom accommodations at these resorts that one might normally expect to pay a premium for often have lower comparable rates.
• All resort residences on Vacatia support instant booking by credit card (not unlike online hotel sites) thus no need for back and forth communication and negotiation with owners, and 24 (or more) hour confirmation periods, that are common with private home vacation rental sites.
• The Family Vacation Guide provides new family-focused local knowledge that Vacatia has created, working with local travel bloggers and photographers. It's never been easier to identify the best restaurants, resorts, beaches and activities, perfect for planning a family's vacation itinerary.

About Vacatia
Vacatia is the resort marketplace for vacationing families. Our sole mission is to help families find the perfect resort residence -- their spacious home base for creating fun, shared vacation memories. Vacatia provides search results for dozens of the leading hospitality, timeshare, and premier independent resorts -- fully managed and professionally serviced timeshare and resort-condominium complexes combining home-like comforts and delightful amenities. Vacatia, a member of the American Resort Development Association (ARDA), is venture-backed, was founded in 2013, and is headquartered in San Francisco, CA. vacatia.com