After severing ties in June, the Vacation Rental Managers Association and Pegasus Solutions have come to terms on a vacation-rental switch for professionally managed vacation properties.
VRMA says that in the lead-up to its annual conference last month, it signed an agreement with Pegasus Solutions, which is renowned for its hotel-distribution switch.
Pegasus had been developing a vacation rental switch for VRMA, but the two companies broke off talks in June when they couldn't come to terms on issues such as who would foot development costs and various volume thresholds.
In an email a couple of days ago about its October conference, VRMA says the two companies will jointly develop the switch over the next 150 days and it will "allow vacation rental managers to distribute inventory across multiple channels, including listing sites, CVB/destination portals, online travel agencies and more. "
VRMA adds: "Participating software companies will provide a feed to the Switch, and vacation rental managers will select which channels to distribute through, allowing for full control of inventory, rates, blackout dates, company branding and more."
Pegasus is believed to have done a considerable amount of development work on the switch earlier in 2011 and had vowed to proceed with it without VRMA's participation when a stalemate ensued in June.
The switch will launch on VRMA's DiscoverVacationHomes site, the association says.
The VRMA-Pegasus switch is seen by some as a hoped-for alternative to HomeAway, which has been trying to make inroads into the professionally managed vacation rental market.
Vacation homes is a notoriously fragmented market, with much of the booking activity taking place offline.