Donuts
Inc., the world's
largest operator of new generic top
level domain registries (new gTLDs),
announced
a record-breaking sale for that
category this morning after closing
a $500,300 all cash
transaction for Vacation.rentals.
The sale was brokered by Brooke
Hernandez, senior domain broker at
Uniregistry.
The buyer was VacaRent LLC, a
newly formed company led by veterans
in the vacation rental space. The
founders include longtime resort
owners and entrepreneurs Michael
and Handan Kugler, Marshall
Hart, William Whelpley,
ITM Investments, Kalus
Enterprises and Jim and Wendy
Sherrill.
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The Kuglers, who operate Hunter's
Friend Resort in
Branson. Missouri, have 14
years of experience in the short
term rental market. Michael Kugler,
who is VacaRent's CEO, said "While
online rentals are well established,
there is a growing unfulfilled need
with property owners. We aim to give
owners the best online destination
for them to easily market their
properties. The term "vacation
rentals" is THE most frequently
searched term online for vacation
properties; it's a name I've had my
eye on for a while and finally it's
our brand. We're excited to leverage
our name and our website to benefit
both property owners and
vacationers."
VacaRent
wasted no time in putting their new acquisition
to work. They quietly launched their
vacation
rentals website on the
domain on March 30, 2018. According
to the release announcing their acquisition
of the domain they expect to
differentiate themselves in two
ways: "First, they wanted to
offer property owners a more
responsive online experience from a
trusted provider with direct
understanding of their needs, and a
business model that was based on
annual subscriptions – not on
bookings transaction fees. Second,
they wanted to empower vacationers
with the ability to easily find what
they need and interact directly with
property owners."
Donuts
Senior Vice President of Sales Matt
Overman noted, "Vacation.rentals
is a terrific domain name and
already has "page one"
ranking on popular search engines.
We look forward to following the
growth of Vacation.Rentals and
supporting its success."
At $500,300 the Vacation.rentals
sale eclipses the previous new gTLD
record of $500,000 that was paid for
Home.loans in another Donuts
sale that was reported in January
2018.
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