Leading travel advice and feedback website operator has announced the acquisition of vacation rental specialist Holiday Lettings.

A subsidiary of online global travel Expedia, TripAdvisor is now in charge of what is acknowledged as the largest independent UK vacation rental website. TripAdvisor takes over Holiday Lettings from the British-based property website operator Rightmove, which sold its majority interest in the website for an undisclosed sum.

Rightmove had originally acquired a stake of 66.67 per cent in Holiday Lettings back in March 2007, though it recently stated in its half yearly report that it would classify the site as a discontinued operation, following the disposition of gross assets totalling £1 million.

40,000 vacation rental properties are currently advertised by Holiday Lettings on behalf of property managers, letting agents and private owners. The inventory stretches across 116 countries, ranging from apartments and villas to windmills and farmhouses, houseboats to yurts. 25 million visitors access the site each year according to the official press release.

TripAdvisor launched vacation rentals in 2009, following the acquisition in 2008 of the US-based Flipkey website. The takeover signals that the group is ramping up its competition with vacation rental leader HomeAway. Holidaylettings.co.uk will continue as an independent website.

TripAdvisor Media Group has now grown to encompass 17 different travel brands with the latest acquisition, collectively attracting around 46 million unique global visitors every month.

Remember the good old days of fighting with your siblings over which radio station the family listened to in the car?

However, the almost worldwide takeover of the personal music collection by Apple and the ubiquitous iPod has changed the landscape of travel music forever, with barely a soul on earth now not owning one of their tiny music devices.

But has this been a real benefit to the individual or is it at the cost of personal preference? Sure, everyone has a music collection dozens of megabytes in size, but the ability to share, and thereby devalue you treasured listening, has left many lamenting the standardisation of travel music. Gone are the days of making a special mix tape for that special holiday, but has that music disappeared as well?

So what is the best, as opposed to most commonly accessible or downloadable, travel music? The traditional soft-rock, middle of the road, easy listening rock will always be popular, with its guitar-led melodies and tales of love and escape most suited to long road trips. Oldies such as The Eagles, Credence Clearwater Revival and the Doobie Brothers are all essential for touring the United States, while the British seem to favour rock bands such as Blur, Oasis, Coldplay, the Stone Roses and U2 for getting around.

Few people can think of heading into New York without imaging Frank Sinatra crooning, while Edith Piaf is synonymous with old time Parisian travel. No trip to Jamaica or any island resort in Southeast Asia is complete without the obligatory Bob Marley soundtrack, although beach bums have tuned into ambient and down-tempo dub and chill, with the likes of kiwi band Fat Freddy’s Drop and the west coast sounds of Sublime and DJ Mark Farina ideally suited for the ultimate driving cruise.

Of course, sing along artists such as Ronan Keating, Van Morrison and Elton John remain popular with female drivers, while red-blooded males still get their testosterone kicks to Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Guns and Roses and Elvis Presley.

So it seems that old, easy listening, favourites are still the most played, evoking a sense of impending escape or adventure that comes with the knowledge that you are finally heading somewhere new.