Oasis Collections, a Florida-based company specializing in luxury vacation rentals, has just opened its doors in Austin. The rapidly expanding company, which also has offices in Miami, Los Angeles, and New York and claims 1,500 properties in 18 Latin American, U.S., and European cities, offers what it calls the "Home Meets Hotel" experience, which combines boutique-hotel-style service and quality with the more immersive experience a home rental can provide.
The company manages booking, check-in, and guest services, as well as providing onsite concierge service, boutique amenities (toiletries), and discounts and free offers from from companies such as Zeel, Ride Indoor Cycling, and Bonobos.
Its featured Austin properties are concentrated in South Austin (Zilker, South Congress), Downtown, East Austin, and West Austin and can run anywhere from $250 to $2,000 per night.
The company is also opening new offices in Madrid, Milan, and Mexico City.
Oasis joins locally headquartered HomeAway, which was acquired by online travel site Expedia last year, in tapping into the luxury market for local vacation rentals. However, Homeaway's rentals are not exclusively luxury-oriented, and the high-end properties they represent tend to be more along the lines of Westlake mansions rather than the more current, less pricey boutique style. Meanwhile, local short-term-rental business TurnKey Rentals, which also manages short-term properties, is looking to expand to other cities.
The city’s plans to phase out “Type 2” short-term rentals hasn’t slowed down their proliferation much. Despite City Council’s recent decision to limit further licensing of an eventually phase out those types of rentals, companies such as Oasis continue to pop up, while others, such as Homads, offer rentals of more than 30 days and therefore fall outside that ordinance's purview.