Interhome Brand Guidelines: Swiss Chalets of 1965, a Migratory Bird & HomeToGo

A London company for Swiss holiday homes.

Interhome dates its start to 1965. English and German Wikipedia both say it was founded in London that year by Bruno Franzen and Werner Frey under the name Swiss Chalets. The company’s own website describes 1965 as the year it opened “the doors to our first privately owned holiday homes in Switzerland,” and it uses “since 1965” as a line on its corporate pages.

The name changed in two steps. German Wikipedia says a merger in 1975 turned the business into Swiss Chalets-Interhome, and that it became simply Interhome in 1977; English Wikipedia gives 1977 as the year of the rename following a merger. In the 1983–84 financial year, German Wikipedia says, Interhome was active in nine European countries, employed 241 people and counted 524,843 guests, who stayed just over six million nights in its homes.

That same year brought the mark the company still uses. German Wikipedia says the logo with the migratory bird, the “Zugvogel,” was introduced in 1983–84, and that it has served again as the company’s emblem since 2008; English Wikipedia dates the bird logo to 1984. Both Wikipedia articles also record that the firm was known for an early attempt at a paperless office.

Inside Hotelplan, 1989 to 2025.

In 1989 Interhome AG was taken over by Hotelplan, German Wikipedia says, and the trade site Short Term Rentalz gave the same year in January 2025. German Wikipedia says Hotelplan it was founded in 1935 by Gottlieb Duttweiler, the founder of the retailer Migros, as a cooperative to sell low-cost package holidays, and it was owned by the Migros group. With Interhome, German Wikipedia says, the Hotelplan group counted 36 companies with more than 140 offices in twelve countries.

Interhome moved online early. German Wikipedia says it launched one of the first online booking platforms in the holiday-home business in 1999, and English Wikipedia says online bookings had reached about 60 per cent by 2009. In August 2011, German Wikipedia says, Hotelplan agreed to buy a first stake of 27 per cent in the German holiday-home company Interchalet from 1 November 2011, with the remaining shares to follow two years later. Interchalet now appears as a second brand on Interhome’s corporate site. Interhome marked its 50th anniversary in 2015. German Wikipedia adds that its homes can now also be booked through outside platforms such as Booking.com and Airbnb, alongside its own websites.

The Hotelplan years ended with a split sale. On 2 February 2024 the Migros group said it intended to sell Hotelplan, German Wikipedia says. Short Term Rentalz reported in January 2025 that the Berlin-based holiday-rental company HomeToGo had said in October 2024 that it was in non-exclusive talks to buy Interhome, and that on 23 January 2025 it announced agreement with Migros on the key commercial terms. On 12 February 2025, German Wikipedia says, the DERTOUR Group agreed to take over the rest of the Hotelplan group, with Interhome excluded. German Wikipedia says the competition authority approved the DERTOUR purchase on 26 August 2025, and that the formal completion of the whole sale process was announced on 29 August 2025, the same day as the Interhome closing.

Design and documentation.

Holiday rental companies fall into two broad groups: marketplaces, which list homes run by others, and managers, which run the homes themselves. Vacasa, which English Wikipedia describes as a vacation rental management company, and Sonder, which leased and operated its own apartments, belong to the second group. A manager answers to owners or landlords as well as to guests, and Vacasa built a separate app for the owners whose homes it looked after, according to the same source.

Search and listing pages carry much of this work. In 2019 Vacasa began showing its rental homes directly in Google search results, English Wikipedia says, and in July 2026, ShortTermRentalz reported, TravelAI relaunched Sonder.com as a booking site whose listings would be selected for design, location and quality. In a 2020 profile, Surface magazine illustrated Sonder with photographs of its interiors in Philadelphia, Savannah and Montreal, and quoted its founder on celebrating “architecture and the arts.”

Naming follows ownership. When Marriott International signed its licensing agreement with Sonder in August 2024, the portfolio was to join its system as a collection called “Sonder by Marriott Bonvoy.” In 2026 the operator Prism opened former Sonder buildings in the United States under its Belvilla brand, as Belvilla District 6, and Casago’s franchisees trade under place names such as Casago San Diego and Casago Belize, ShortTermRentalz reported.

Apps sit at the centre of the guest’s stay. Surface described Sonder guests receiving an access code and concierge services through an app in place of a front desk. This guide sets out each company’s founding, owners, listings and sales as dated facts, and marks clearly what rests only on a company’s own word.

A HomeToGo Group brand since 2025.

The sale closed in late August. In a release dated 29 August 2025, HomeToGo SE confirmed the closing of its acquisition of Interhome, which it described as Europe’s second-largest vacation rental management company; Skift reported the completion the same day, and said HomeToGo expected the deal to move it further toward selling software and services to other businesses, with Interhome managing more than 40,000 properties in Europe. English Wikipedia says Interhome now sits under HomeToGo Originals, the umbrella that the group uses for its locally rooted brands. Interhome’s own website says that, since August 2025, it has been part of the HomeToGo Group “while continuing to operate as an independent brand with strong Swiss roots,” and its footer reads “A HomeToGo Group brand.” The head office is in Glattbrugg, near Zurich, English Wikipedia says.

Interhome’s size depends on the date of the count. Short Term Rentalz, citing Interhome’s website in January 2025, gave 40,000 properties in 20 countries let on behalf of 21,000 owners. In November 2026 the corporate site lists about 70,000 properties, 30,000 owners and 200 destinations, with 15 national offices and 200 local service offices and partner agencies; those are the company’s figures. Its owner pages list full-service and self-management models, and a partner programme for travel agents and other sales partners. Its country menu runs separate Interhome and Interchalet sites across Europe, with Interhome sites also for markets such as Australia, Canada, India and the United States.

For a design guide, Interhome shows how a simple emblem can carry a company through name changes and new owners: the migratory bird, introduced in the mid-1980s, has served again as its mark since 2008. Compare HomeToGo, the Berlin group that bought it, and Novasol, a Danish holiday-home brand founded three years later. For this guide we use a chalet red, a dark pine and a snowfield white with a serif, an unofficial interpretation; no product or logo is reproduced.

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