Skift Take
Vacation rentals and guest-booking fees aren't particularly sexy or headline-grabbing but 11-year-old HomeAway could have a far-reaching impact on parent Expedia's profit numbers. Trivago is a very nice plaything, too.
Nearly $1 billion in guest-booking fees could super-charge HomeAway's top and bottom lines for parent Expedia Inc. by 2018.
With that in mind, while much investor and travel industry attention focuses on Expedia's expected initial public offering of German metasearch site Trivago, which has been on a growth tear, it is Expedia's 2015 acquisition of HomeAway for $3.9 billion that could be the real sleeper in terms of providing the most-impactful upside.
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That's the view of investment bank PiperJaffray, which points to the guest fee on vacation rentals that HomeAway imposed for the first time earlier this year as a major development when it comes to boosting E
