ERentals Exclusive vs Luxury Retreats: what changed after Airbnb

Honest comparison

ERentals Exclusive vs Luxury Retreats (folded into Airbnb Luxe)

Legacy luxury villa brand, now part of Airbnb Luxe

Luxury Retreats was a stand-alone luxury villa brand until Airbnb acquired it in 2017 and folded its inventory into Airbnb Luxe in 2020. Travelers still searching "Luxury Retreats" often want the pre-acquisition experience: curation, high-touch service, human concierge. ERentals Exclusive offers a modern version of that.

Luxury Retreats (folded into Airbnb Luxe)

Luxury Retreats, founded in 1999, ran a high-touch luxury villa business for two decades before being acquired by Airbnb in 2017. Their brand was retired in 2020 and the roster was integrated into Airbnb Luxe. The original curation team dispersed.

ERentals Exclusive

ERentals Exclusive delivers the curation-plus-concierge model that Luxury Retreats was known for, but at a smaller destination-focused scale. Founder-run, on-site inspected, direct-booking. If you liked Luxury Retreats, you're our natural audience.

Side by side

Dimension

Luxury Retreats (folded into Airbnb Luxe)

ERentals

Current status

Brand retired, inventory in Airbnb Luxe

Active independent marketplace

Curation model (pre-2020)

Human-curated luxury villa collection

Similar model, smaller focused roster, on-site inspection

Booking flow

Now flows through Airbnb Luxe

Direct-booking via Stripe with founder concierge

Concierge

Legacy concierge team no longer branded Luxury Retreats

Founders on WhatsApp + local ground team

Geographic scope

Was global, now inside Airbnb Luxe

12 destinations, deeper coverage per destination

Current availability

The brand was folded into Airbnb after its acquisition and no longer operates independently

Operating today, with a roster that is inspected and filmed rather than inherited

Continuity for repeat guests

Not applicable once a brand is absorbed, guest history rarely survives the move

The same two people handle a returning group, and the prior trip informs the next one

Frequently asked

Where did Luxury Retreats go?

Airbnb acquired Luxury Retreats in 2017 and folded the inventory into Airbnb Luxe by 2020. The Luxury Retreats brand is no longer active.

Is ERentals Exclusive a modern successor to Luxury Retreats?

In model, yes: curated luxury villas + a real concierge. In scale, no: we operate deeper coverage in fewer destinations, not the global roster Luxury Retreats used to run.

Can you help me book a specific property Luxury Retreats used to list?

Send the property or the destination and dates and we will check whether it is in our roster or a partner's.

Do you match Luxury Retreats' service level?

Founder-run concierge, on-site inspection, human WhatsApp response. Direct comparison isn't apples-to-apples since the Luxury Retreats team dispersed in 2020, but the ethos is the same.

Luxury Retreats no longer operates. Why keep this comparison?

Because people still search for it, and the honest answer is useful: the brand was acquired by Airbnb and absorbed. If you booked with them before and are looking for the equivalent, this page explains what that model was and where ours differs.

What did that model do well that you have kept?

Human trip planning by someone who knew the houses. That is the part worth keeping and it is the part that usually gets cut first when a curated brand is absorbed into a larger platform. It is the reason we still answer the phone ourselves.