Largest platinum new top-level domain sale to date.
SEATTLE – Donuts Inc., the global leader in high-quality, new top-level Internet domains, announced that the platinum name Vacation.Rentals was acquired for $500,300. It is believed to be the largest recorded sale of a new top-level domain (TLD).
The sale was brokered by Brooke Hernandez, senior domain broker at Uniregistry.
Vacation.Rentals was acquired by Michael and Handan Kugler, longtime resort owners and entrepreneurs. The Kuglers, along with Marshall Hart, William Whelpley, ITM Investments, Kalus Enterprises, and Jim and Wendy Sherrill, founded Vacarent, LLC, the parent company of the Vacation.Rentals website.
Leveraging their experience as resort owners and entrepreneurs in digital commerce, the Kuglers created the Vacation.Rentals website with several objectives. 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.
"While online rentals are well established, there is a growing unfulfilled need with property owners," said Michael Kugler, founder and CEO of Vacarent, LLC, the parent company of the Vacation.Rentals website. "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."
"The travel and vacations category is huge and growing rapidly," said Matt Overman, senior vice president of sales, Donuts. "We are delighted that Michael and Handan Kugler and the Vacation.Rentals team are offering an exciting, differentiated solution for property owners and vacationers. 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."
The Vacation.Rentals sale comes on the heels of Donuts' announcement that it has acquired the .TRAVEL top-level domain.
"This record-breaking sale further supports the rising value and demand for new TLDS," said Brooke Hernandez, senior domain broker at Uniregistry. "This is only the beginning, and we are excited to be a part of it. Congratulations to Donuts and to the Kuglers!"
Donuts premium domain consultants work closely with registrar customers to help them find the optimal domain names for their clients. The Donuts premium team has a proven track record, and deep industry experience and insights. Donuts data scientists maintain a living database of high-quality names which is thoroughly researched and analyzed using, among other things, domain industry data, social and economic market trends, and global search engine behavior. The Donuts premium database is continually augmented and updated to reflect real-world changes in inventory, SEO/SEM activity, and transactions.
Tatiana is the news coordinator for TravelDailyNews Media Network (traveldailynews.gr, traveldailynews.com and traveldailynews.asia). Her role includes monitoring the hundreds of news sources of TravelDailyNews Media Network and skimming the most important according to our strategy.
She holds a Bachelor's degree in Communication & Mass Media from Panteion University of Political & Social Studies of Athens and she has been editor and editor-in-chief in various economic magazines and newspapers.
