The FINANCIAL, Tbilisi, Georgia — TheSociety.com is designed to usher in a new era of luxury vacation planning and offers a premier online marketplace for elite vacation rentals with a collection of luxurious private residences in beach, mountain and desert destinations.

According to the Association of Business Schools, the Society’s luxury standards are steered by a board of industry experts who ensure that each property meets the standards and guidelines of a true luxury vacation rental. This distinguishes The Society as a different breed of travel site, which will appeal to discerning travellers who want privacy, comfort, space and entertaining options.

Travellers in search of a true luxury experience choose the world’s most exclusive hotel brands because they know exactly what they will get. The Society aims to create a similarly trusted marketplace in the luxury holiday rentals market through which travellers know they will find special properties for a perfect holiday.

‘Our commitment is to be a trusted symbol of luxury,’ said Michael McFadden, co-founder of The Society. ‘Booking through The Society ensures the traveller will enjoy the benefits of a world-class rental property and at a reasonable cost.’

The site is committed to bringing trust and good practice to a fragmented and high-risk part of the travel industry. The Society allows second home owners and property managers to build detailed profiles of the properties they are renting. This goes beyond the usual property listings and photos of conventional lettings sites by integrating feedback mechanisms such as blogs, ratings and user generated content. Unlike other vacation rental sites currently available, The Society’s range of social tools allow additional useful features to be presented for travellers, second home owners, and property managers. The social networking tools bring a layer of trust to enable owners to validate who is inquiring about a home and even get referrals. In the same vein, travellers can contact former renters to validate the claims of the property.

For the individual traveller looking for the ideal location the search facilities are unique by allowing them to search by activities such as golf, ski, and beach/lakes.

Michael McFadden explained ‘Scott and I are both travel enthusiasts and between us have had a number of bad experiences of the holiday rental market. The industry is very fragmented but also very large. With over 6 million second homes in the US alone combined with over $70 billion spent in online travel, we realized that there was a significant opportunity to make a difference here and to offer a range of valuable new services for both property owners and travellers to allow them to get the most out of their holiday lets. The Society provides a safe and robust environment for vacation rental transactions. Since we are built on a platform much like MySpace and Facebook, The Society is able to bring a much-needed layer of trust and transparency to the industry. When a traveller’s hard-earned vacation time is at stake, this kind of reassurance is invaluable.’

Scott Berkley and Michael McFadden graduated from Saïd Business School’s prestigious one year MBA programme in October 2006 and since then have been building the business.

‘We are not the first entrepreneurial partnership to meet at Saïd on the MBA programme’ commented Scott Berkley ‘and start-ups are something of a Saïd tradition with a number of very successful companies now established around the world. The School is known for its strength in entrepreneurship teaching and research, and for the practical support and experience it gives to students with entrepreneurial ambitions. When I began the MBA programme I did not have the intention to launch my own venture, but through the connections I made at Oxford and the courses I studied, I became convinced that this was going to be my future career path. Our shared interest in travel and leisure encouraged Mike and I to explore this market for commercial opportunities and we are convinced that The Society offers a range of unique features and advantages to users which will make it a success.’

‘We have launched now in the US and plan an international roll out in 2008’ says Michael McFadden. ‘This is going to be the start of an entirely new way of finding and reserving holiday rental properties and are very excited about the potential of the company to change how this part of the holiday market works.’