US: From the frontline workers needing temporary accommodations to the road warriors wanting an RV rental for a socially-distanced trip, people all over the world continued to seek accommodations in 2020, according to VacationRenter.
VacationRenter, a company that aggregates the best rentals from booking sites, has evolved to meet the changing needs of travellers and helped millions of people find places to stay in 2020.
The challenges facing the travel community amid the Covid-19 pandemic have made it crucial for travel companies to support both travellers and hosts. In response, the VacationRenter team said it had focused on three key areas to provide for its customers:
- Health and safety made easy
The VacationRenter team added features that highlighted precautions hosts were taking to keep their guests safe, such as contactless check-in and enhanced cleaning procedures, making it easier for travellers to find the best rentals.
- Personalised search
The team redesigned the search experience by refining its machine learning algorithm to consider the new needs of travellers, providing more filters to make the planning process easier, and allowing them to save their favourite listings to revisit later.
- New places to stay
VacationRenter became the first vacation rental site to list RV rentals during a time when interest in the segment surged because of the safe and socially distant nature of RV travel. The site now has more than 100,000 RVs across 15 countries, making it the largest peer-to-peer platform for RV rentals — and the only search engine that includes both vacation rentals and RVs.
By heightening its focus on building for the new world of travel in 2020, VacationRenter wrapped up the year surpassing a major milestone. The startup, which launched in 2018, exceeded $1 billion in gross booking value for the year.
As travel behaviour continues to evolve in 2021, VacationRenter is looking to continue building solutions to meet the needs of travellers everywhere.
This year, the company will continue to expand into international markets and offer new property types to tailor to the unique and changing needs of guests around the world. The startup will also further simplify and personalise the customer journey by building “industry-first” research and planning tools, and continuing to improve its machine learning-driven property recommendations.
COO Marco del Rosario said: “People needed safe and socially-distanced places to stay in 2020, and I’m proud of our team for being there for travellers at such a critical time. This year, we are committed to building innovative solutions that adapt as traveller needs evolve to make finding the perfect rental easier than ever before.”
VacationRenter brings all rental options from the leading travel sites together in one place and showcases only the best results, eliminating the need to spend hours searching and scrolling. The company uses machine learning-driven rankings to help travellers find the perfect rental.
