Our Brands

We’ve been in business since 2003, over 20 years. To put that another way, we are 5 years older than AirBNB. Over the course of our company's lifetime, the vacation rental industry has seen a lot of change. Back in the 1990s and early 2000s, people were booking their vacation lodging by calling a travel agent or a local property management company, picking a condo development (rather than an exact condo), and then hoping that when they checked in, they'd have rented a decent place. The uncertainty of exactly what you'd get was worth it for anyone who didn't want to be stuck in a hotel room, but it was far from ideal. We saw that technology allowed us to offer a better option. So we launched, and we were the first local company that actually showed photos of every room, in every rental property. Looking back, can you imagine doing it the old way, picking a rental property based upon "representative photos"? We know it is better to have accurate property listings, to let travelers find and pick the one that is the best option for their needs, and to provide advice and assistance when requested.

We've grown and changed with the vacation rental industry, and over time we have developed many different approaches to help travelers as well as our property owners. We have many websites, and numerous brands, and have tailored our business practices to the ever changing marketplace. This page helps explain the differences between our brands, how they came to be, and how they interrelate with one another.

Our Rentals By Owner brands came first. VRBO, or Vacation Rentals By Owner, was the first major player in the short term vacation rental industry. It was a national brand, but each of our individual markets was locally owned and operated, and we were true to the Rentals By Owner name - our role was to help property owners with the various aspects of marketing and renting their homes directly to travelers. For those travelers, we were here to help them understand the destination, the various properties, locations, amenities, transportation options, restaurants, activities, and more. We helped them choose the right property, and rent it directly from the property owner. These days, travelers are still renting from our property owners, but travelers are not as likely to have direct contact with the property owners. We offer one single point of contact for all parties, and handle most of the work for both homeowners and travelers.

Our Mountain Vacation Lodging brand came next. Over the years, the partner who owned and ran our Rentals By Owner operations in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, had been enjoying steady success and growth. Between 2008 and 2011, he launched new operations in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Winter Park, Colorado, Sun Valley, Idaho, and Big Sky, Montana. Meanwhile, our other partners who were running the Rentals By Owner operations were experiencing varying degrees of success. Some wanted to move on to different careers, some had health issues, or other life changes. When other partners expressed an interest in moving on, the Steamboat Springs partner knew he could continue to provide great services for his property owners while also taking on the management of operations in additional resort destinations. By 2017, the Rentals By Owner operations in Vail & Beaver Creek, Breckenridge and Summit County, Park City and Deer Valley, Telluride, Crested Butte, and Grand Lake had been consolidated under one company's management. The numerous Rentals By Owner brands still make sense, but our company was renamed Mountain Vacation Lodging.

TripRentals is our newest brand. We've never sought to become a dominant national or international company. We are not a profit driven publicly traded company. We have grown mostly through word of mouth. We do good business, and word gets around. We started out in ski resort destinations, but property owners have asked for our help in other mountain resort destinations, and we've been able to help them the same way we've helped homeowners in more well known mountain resort areas. We've also had property owners ask for our services in parts of the country where there aren't any mountains at all. It might sound strange to rent a property from Mountain Vacation Lodging if that property is not found anywhere near the mountains. Our Rentals By Owner brands are constrained to properties in one destination. Our Mountain Vacation Lodging brand is constrained to properties in various mountainous areas. TripRentals as a brand has no such constraints.

Resortia is another name you might see, particularly with regard to our email addresses. Resortia is a company that was a founding partner and co-owner in each of the Rentals By Owner businesses. For each local RBO partner, Resortia provided support services, while the local partners ran the day to day operations. Resortia develops software and technology, advanced marketing campaigns, helps with strategic planning, and more. As of 2017, they are no longer co-owners in our business, but they do remain a strategic and long term partner. Resortia continues to develop software and tools for our company, and vacation rental companies. Resortia is now known as Rentalz, due to the success of their nationwide vacation rental booking site.

If you've taken the time to read all of this, you now have a pretty good feel for how we got to have so many brands and names. If you remember one thing about us, remember that our company has stood the test of time. We will continue to grow through doing great work and word getting around, but we'll never be profit driven money hungry corporate types who cut corners to boost their wealth. We'll just keep doing our work, providing great service, being as professional, helpful, friendly, and compassionate as you should expect from a hospitality company.