HomeAway already owns UK market leader, holiday-rentals.co.uk, which it picked up in 2005.

OwnersDirect.co.uk will continue to operate as an independent brand from its offices in Ashtead and will be managed by Greg Grant, who has recently been appointed by HomeAway to run its UK operations.

The Texas-based business also owns CyberRentals.com, GreatRentals.com, Triphomes.com and FeWo-direkt.de in Germany. Its portfolio now represents more than 255,000 listings across 100 countries.

‘The increasing popularity of private holiday home rentals is reflected in HomeAway's exponential growth, where revenue has increased organically by more than 50% each year,’ it said.

Background:
W&O adds villa specialist (24/9/07)
HomeAway adds French site (23/1/07)
Villa rentals dotcom raises $160m (Nov06)
Teletext pays £3m+ to get into online villas (Oct06)