WebSchemas/VacationRentals
1. Vacation Rental Schema
1.1 Scope
The scope of the Vacation Rental Schema is to differentiate this accomodation type from other accomodation types that are currently marked up. The most relevant Schema.org mark-ups to this industry right now are the following:
http://schema.org/Hotel http://schema.org/Hostel http://schema.org/Motel http://schema.org/BedAndBreakfast http://schema.org/LodgingBusiness
According to Wikipedia[1], Vacation rental is the renting out of a furnished apartment or house on a temporary basis to tourists as an alternative to a hotel. The term vacation rental is mainly used in the US. In Europe the term villa rental or villa holiday is preferred for rentals of detached houses in warm climates. Other terms used are self-catering rentals, holiday homes, holiday lets (in the United Kingdom), cottage holidays (for rentals of smaller accommodation in rural locations) and gites (in rural locations in France.
This accommodation type definitely differs from Hotels, Hostels, Motels and B&Bs and it's certainly a sub-category of the LodgingBusiness schema with a few extra features, as described below.
1.2 Vacation Rental Schema properties
Below, you can find the complete proposal for properties that are needed for a complete Vacation Rental Schema. The first three tables have properties that are shared by other Schemas (Place, Thing and LocalBusiness) while the fourth table includes the new elements that need to be included to the schema in order to give the characteristics of the vacation rental industry.
Properties from other Schemas:
| Property | Expected Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Properties from Place[2] | ||
| address | PostalAddress | Physical address of the item. |
| aggregateRating | aggregateRating | The overall rating, based on a collection of reviews or ratings, of the item. |
| geo | GeoCoordinates or GeoShape | The geo coordinates of the place. |
| map | URL | A URL to a map of the place. |
| photos | ImageObject or Photograph | Photographs of this place |
| reviews | Review | Review of the item |
| telephone | Text | The telephone number. |
| Properties from Thing[3] | ||
|---|---|---|
| description | Text | A short description of the item. |
| image | URL | URL of an image of the item. |
| name | Text | The name of the item. |
| url | URL | URL of the item. |
| Properties from LocalBusiness[4] | ||
|---|---|---|
| priceRange | Text | The price range of the business, for example $$$. |
| paymentAccepted | Text | Cash, credit card, etc. |
| currenciesAccepted | Text | The currency accepted (in ISO 4217 currency format). |
New properties for the Vacation Rental Schema - Proposed Vocabulary
| Property | Expected Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| propertyID | Text | Property unique identifier: E.g. 127254, 54362vr, etc. |
| propertyType | Text | Property type: Apartment, boat house, villa, farm house, etc. |
| size | Text | E.g. 800ft2 / 74m2 |
| accommodationType | Text | Accommodation type: Catered, etc. |
| locationType | Text | Location type: Beach, Mountain, City Center, Village, Ski resort etc |
| facilities | Text | Facilities / amenities: Air conditioning, parking, garden, WiFi etc |
| bedrooms | number | # of bedrooms: 1,2,3 |
| bathrooms | number | # of bathrooms: 1,2,3 |
| canAccommodate | number | Number of people - "Sleeps" |
| minimumNights | number | Minimum number of days accepted for a booking (length). Ie. 3 (or 0 for no limit) |
| advancedBookings | number | How far ahead will a booking be accepted. Number of days - ie. 90 (or 0 for no limit) |
| neighbourhood | Text/URL | Important places that are nearby? |
| cancellationPolicy | Text | Cancellation policy: Are cancellations accepted? Refunds offered? Period in days and conditions. |
1.3 Possible Implementations
The vacation rental industry is quite big. Companies like HomeAway, Connecting Rentals Worldwide, Homelidays, OwnersDirect, Toprural, TripAdvisor, VRBO, Flipkey, aura.travel, etc. are possible adopters.