By Natalie Armstrong, Reuters

BOULDER, Colo. – Trying to make some extra money during the recession, Michael Joseph decided to rent his South Lake Tahoe vacation property. After being frustrated by the online options available to him, Joseph designed his own rental booking website.

“If an owner wants to maximize their exposure by advertising on lots of different travel sites, they have to build a separate ad on each site which takes 30 to 45 minutes and costs between $100 and $700 a year,” said Joseph, who founded Boulder, Colorado-based Vacation Rental Partner (www.vacationrentalpartner.com) in 2009. “Most of these vacation rental owners don’t have the time to build these ads much less research which of the sites will actually give them a good return on their investment.”

Joseph said his company targets owners already renting their properties online, but who want to make more money and save time. He hopes to lure owners using vacation rental management companies, which take anywhere from 30 percent to 50 percent of the owners’ revenues.

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