Accommodation specialist ceases trading
Rental accommodation website RentalsCombined, formerly called VillasDirect, has ceased trading.
A notice on its website says no further bookings can be accepted and tells customers: "All current bookings are protected under the Travel Trust Association, and we ask you to contact them should you have any questions or require assistance."
The company was set up by entrepreneur Nico Nicholas and his wife Elkie and has won several awards, including Best Online Travel App of 2015 by Sabre.
Describing the company as the ‘professional Airbnb’, Nico Nicholas originally set up VillasDirect but rebranded to RentalsCombined in 2015 when, on signing a distribution agreement with Sabre, the GDS asked if it could also do business rentals too.
The company was a member of the Association of Serviced Apartment Providers (ASAP).
RentalsCombined claimed to have partnered with the ‘largest blue-chip travel management companies’ in the world, ‘allowing travellers to put the booking process back in the hands of the professionals in an age of digital oversaturation’.
It had planned to increase its access to over 800,000 properties over the next five years.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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