Vacation rentals are a $24.3-billion industry

Tourism market research company PhoCusWright has released some preliminary figures from its forthcoming report, Vacation Rental Marketplace: Poised for Change. According to the study, vacation rentals are a US$24.3-billion industry worldwide, with online rentals accounting for about 12 percent of those revenues. 

Given the plethora of online vacation rental sites, I'm surprised the figure for online rentals isn't higher. PhoCusWright predicts it will rise to 17 percent by 2010.

At the minute, about two-thirds of people who book vacation rentals do their research online, but most people use traditional methods (such as phone, fax and snail mail) to make the final reservation.

Other notable figures from the report: 20 percent of all people who researched travel online booked a vacation rental last year, and 89 percent of all people who booked a rental plan to book another one within the next three years.