Skift Take
Google organic search traffic to the entire vacation rental sector has slowed of late, according to HomeAway CEO Brian Sharples. That may be one reason HomeAway is testing search engine marketing and may ramp up its spend in the latter half of 2014. The other factor is HomeAway needs to start delivering better performance to its new pay-per booking customers.
How's this for a shocker? HomeAway and Expedia have finally begun their beta testing after announcing a distribution deal l in October, but only about 1.3% of HomeAway's properties are currently capable of distribution through an online travel agency.
HomeAway CEO Brian Sharples revealed as much during the company's fourth quarter earnings call February 19, saying only about 12,000 HomeAway properties out of the 890,000 listed on HomeAway global sites are distribution-ready.
Sharples said HomeAway will spend the rest of 2014 building a distribution platform to get properties ready for electronic distribution.
The development of a distribution platform, and news that HomeAway is poised in the second half of 2014 to go beyond its traditional SEO pr
