Ft. Lauderdale, FL (August 30, 2007): According to several recent industry surveys, high-end vacationers are increasingly finding the elegance, pleasure and privacy of a beachfront villa, hilltop castle, island cottage or other luxury vacation home preferable to the standardized amenities and pre-fabricated romance of traditional high-end resort hotels.

"My boyfriend and I live in Manhattan and we take vacations to get away from people, not stand in line for elevators and restaurants," Michelle Delio, a technology consultant and author, told one pollster. "It doesn't really matter whether the people in those lines are wearing plastic pop beads or antique pearls around their necks, they're still an unpleasant reminder of our Big Apple home-sweet-urban-jungle-home."

In one recent survey of 36,000 upscale vacationers, nearly 60 percent reported that they planned to book a vacation home, rather than a hotel or resort, for their next vacation. Even more impressive was a separate poll which found that more than 95 percent of 3,000 travelers who had experienced the advantages of vacation home rentals preferred them to all other forms of holiday accommodatio
ns.

"Frankly, we are not at all surprised by the level of enthusiasm for luxury vacation rentals shown by these independent polls," commented vacation rental pioneer Heidi Alexian, co-founder of Masterpiece Rentals, the web's number one portal connecting luxury vacation property renters and owners. "They completely mirror the reactions we get from our own site visitors once they are exposed to the advantages of living like kings and queens in a private paradise instead of faces in a crowd of hotel guests.

"With a vacation rental you have total control of your environment," Alexian added. "If you want to be the only family on a deserted island, you can use our site to find a delightful beachcomber cabin fit for a millionaire at a very resort-comparable price. If, on the other hand, you want to spend a weekend or a month in a penthouse overlooking the Las Vegas Strip or Jamaica Bay, you can usually find that, too."

The de facto world leader in bringing luxury vacation rental owners and renters together, Masterpiece Rentals' website contains an unparalleled collection of villas, condos, castles, mansions, cabins, cottages, chateaus, chalets, townhomes and executive homes being offered to discriminating singles and families seeking the ultimate in vacation accommodations.