Introducing Domegos: A New Web 2.0 Vacation Rentals Directory

28 01 2008

Wandering around the internet, I was searching for 2 different things at the same time: a hotel for a romantic weekend getaway (with our lovely dog!) and a new apartment to rent. I suddenly asked myself: “Why not renting a vacation home instead of booking the usual same type of hotels (those few hotels that still accept dogs) for our long romantic week end?”

Domegos Actually I know quite a lot of people that work in the Real Estate industry (basically intermediaries between owners and renters), and I am often amazed to see that while everything goes 2.0, real estate is no exception. My online research for the right property made me discover Domegos, which is a vacation rentals directory that aims to connect owners and renters. It is an alpha version as they just launched but it is very promising.

Curiously what first grabbed my attention were all the advantages for vacation rental owners (not real estate agencies!) to list their properties for free on this Real Estate 2.0 platform. Each property gets six pages, 14 photos (that’s quite a lot), an interactive map (via a Google Maps mash-up), customer feedback form, offer management, and an availability calendar. Not bad, isn’t it? Apparently most vacation rentals listing sites don’t have quite that breadth of tools and features.

Il Frantoio delle Grazie

Seeing that benifiting from all those features was free of charge for owners, my second thought was: there must be some type of hidden commissions that the renters would pay (me in this case!). Again, I was nicely surprised to see there are no fees whatsoever for the renters, no commission charges for mediated booking, nothing, nada!

All in all, Domegos is clearly not an intermediary in the selling process but more of a facilitator helping owners and renters to do business easily. A skilfully free vacation rentals directory. I recommend it for my (lucky) owner friends and for renters as well (try the email alert system that warn you when system matches your needs).

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Date : 28 January 2008
Categories : Real Estate, Real Estate 2.0, Travel

5 responses to “Introducing Domegos: A New Web 2.0 Vacation Rentals Directory”

3 02 2008: Marketing in tourism. Find new outlook on travel. (14:39:35) :

Vacation home rental promotion: part 2…

It is important to understand that people who are looking for a vacation rental home are generally looking for more than they can get with a brand-name hotel. They typically want space, privacy, laundry facilities and – almost always – a cheaper rate t…
12 05 2008: Aneeta Negi (12:30:17) :

yes i am also agree with the above statement.

http://www.thinkrentals.com
17 06 2008: Dr. Richard (08:12:16) :

Anything that makes vacation rental websites better is good! I like the idea of connecting renters and owners. You can do a lot with a basic site but take a look at my blog for tips on the Perfect Vacation rental website.
13 07 2008: Paul Adams (15:27:52) :

Great post,

Its good to see so many people taking initiative and giving us a good info on travel and vacation packages… Thanks…
18 09 2008: Masooma (07:01:09) :

I also agree with what is written. Infact in recent years rental apartments are becoming popular than hotels and why not when they offer the same facilities at cheaper rates. For example check the comparison done on this website:
http://www.mydubaistay.com/Aboutuscost.aspx