Accommodation giant booking.com has launched villa.com as a standalone brand as it seeks to increase its share of the holiday rental market.

The dedicated online booking website for villas, apartments and holiday homes will offer more than 152,200 holiday rentals in 24,736 of the world’s most popular holiday destinations.

The Priceline-owned booking.com said in a statement: “We know there’s a big difference between booking a room in a hotel and planning a self-catering holiday – and that’s why we decided to develop Villas.com.”

The new site has flexible search features designed to help holidaymakers find the right property in the right place.

Villas.com also includes useful information about the regions in which each holiday rental is located – so guests can learn more about their destinations, and be sure they are making the right choice.

Customers using villas.com will be able to book all properties from within the site, rather than having to secure reservations through the owner or a third party offline.

Instant confirmation will be available on the site.

The site is likely to compete with HomeAway, TripAdvisor and Airbnb.

booking.com added: “Use Villas.com to search for cottages with pools, for villas with sea views, for city bolt-holes, for rural idylls with enough bedrooms for everyone and for homes that welcome the whole family…including the dog.”