HomeAway Inc., an online vacation rental marketplace, has acquired Paris-based Homelidays SAS, which operates Homelidays.com, the largest pan-European for-rent-by-owner vacation rental site, featuring more than 40,000 listings, including more than 400 in Puglia.

According to the company, the acquisition further strengthens its global leadership position in this rapidly growing $48 billion segment of the travel industry. HomeAway now features more than 360,000 worldwide properties.

“Homelidays is a significant acquisition for HomeAway given its broad inventory and its brand recognition among European travelers,” says HomeAway CEO Brian Sharples. “It also means we now offer travelers an even more amazing selection of vacation rental properties.”

In Puglia, the Homelidays site currently lists, by province, 47 properties in Bari, 68 in Brindisi, 32 in Foggia, 234 in Lecce and 48 in Taranto.

Entrepreneur Florent Mamelle founded Homelidays in 2001. The site is published in and supported by a team that speaks seven different languages – English, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish.

“The Homelidays team is very much looking forward to putting our unique knowledge of the European market to work for HomeAway,” says Mamelle. “We are also thrilled about the many advantages we can bring our customers by being a valued member of the HomeAway worldwide collection of vacation rentals.” Mamelle will continue to oversee the Homelidays operations from the Paris office. The HomeAway team now includes 252 employees in the United States and 202 in Europe.

Photo courtesy of Homelidays