Booking.com launches rental website Villas.com

Leading online booking portal, Booking.com, has launched Villas.com.

With nearly 150,000 properties including villas, apartments and holiday homes in some 176 countries, the Priceline-owned company are clearly looking to capture a larger share of the vacation rental market space.

Functionality on Villas.com remains the same as Booking.com (filters, guest reviews, instant booking) while the design and user experience will differ slightly.

The move follows a deal in 2013 with InterHome to integrate approximately 2500 properties at the time.

The company says it understands the “big difference between booking a room in a hotel and planning a do-it-yourself vacation”.

Whilst the main Booking.com brand has steadily being increasing the numbers of vacation rental properties to its main site since 2013 the news will certainly make the likes of Airbnb, HomeAway and TripAdvisor sit up and take notice.