Vacation Rentals Take Over the Travel Innovation Summit

(MoneyWatch)  The morning sessions concluded with a slew of vacation rental companies. Why so many of these? Well, it's a still mostly untapped market, but clearly several companies have decided its time to fix that problem.

Escapia and LiveRez both offer back end solutions for properties to use which at the same time populate a front end booking site (along with partner sites). Meanwhile, the Society for Leisure Enthusiasts focuses on high-end villas and rentals while VacationRoost concentrates on professionally-managed properties. All of these are really focusing on bringing information to the eventual traveler, and that's a good thing for everyone . . . but hotels.

Travelers like hotels because they can usually trust that a brand will have certain standards, and they can expect a basic level of service. But it's a different story with vacation rentals. Travelers usually have to rely upon a few pictures and then hope that everything turns out as they expect. That lack of good information is why all these sites are popping up and trying to carve out a niche where people can come and leave reviews about properties to offer a better idea of what future travelers will find.

Ultimately, this sort of information can make vacation rentals a more valid alternative to hotels because people can find better information all in one place. Of course, it's unlikely that all of these sites will succeed, and there will without question have to be further consolidation. So we'll have to see which ones end up surviving before the idea will really take off.