PARK CITY, Utah (Oct. 20, 2008) – VacationRoost.com was selected as one of the most innovative travel companies in the country and will be featured during The Travel Innovation Summit at The PhoCusWright Conference to be held Nov. 17 in Hollywood, Calif.

VacationRoost.com CEO Julian Castelli and Michelle Hagen, vice president of customer experience and former Expedia, Inc. director, will join a cast of elite speakers representing companies that are poised to revolutionize the travel industry through travel planning, purchasing, trending and technology. Each speaker will be judged by travel-guru professionals who will send six finalists to fill the “Five Minutes of Fame” slots during the Center Stage Nov. 19-20.

“The PhoCusWright Conference (www.phocuswright.com/conferences) brings together the movers and shakers on the cutting edge of the travel industry,” Castelli said. “We are proud that PhoCusWright selected VacationRoost.com as one of the most innovative new travel companies to showcase in their program.”

VacationRoost.com (www.vacationroost.com) was selected for pioneering an approach that provides consumers with a consolidated online marketplace for more than 100,000 vacation rentals where they can comparison shop, receive online and offline support, check availability and book online. VacationRoost offers the widest selection of professionally managed vacation rentals across the U.S., Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean.

“We’re building a way to efficiently bring lots of different inventory from lots of different places to one site,” Hagen said. “There’s a tremendous amount of heavy lifting going on behind the scenes that’s required to make it easy for our customers to shop and book online.”

VacationRoost recognized those challenges as an opportunity to leverage technology to finally bring vacation rental supply online.

“Considering the fact that more than half of all travel is booked online and only 12 percent of vacation rentals were booked online in 2007, there is a tremendous long-term upside to building the online vacation rental opportunity,” said Douglas Quinby, senior director, research at PhoCusWright.

With a clear demand for the right online vacation rental company, Quinby said, “It’s a perfect opportunity. It’s really a matter of who’s going to grab the bull by the horns.”

Castelli and Hagen will show that VacationRoost has already stepped up to the plate.

“We have an exciting story to tell about the last frontier of online travel – bringing the Vacation Rental segment online,” Castelli said. “We look forward to sharing how we are doing this with the broader travel industry.”

About VacationRoost.com
VacationRoost.com is a consolidated online marketplace where travelers can search, shop and book the largest selection of professionally managed vacation rental properties. With over 100,000 vacation rental units in 84 locations across the western Rockies, eastern beach markets, Caribbean and Mexico, VacationRoost.com helps travelers find the perfect rental based on their specific needs and budget. By bringing decades of experience in the online travel and vacation rental industry to VacationRoost.com, the executive leadership and team of 100 Travel Specialists have enabled the Company to revolutionize the industry. VacationRoost.com is an operating business of Mountain Reservations, Inc. For more information, go to www.vacationroost.com.