Vacation Rentals in the U.S. Are Now a $23 Billion Industry
Photo Credit: A vacation rental in Austin, Texas, that has been rented through HomeAway. A PhoCusWright study says the percentage of U.S. vacation rentals that are bookable online has doubled over the last few years. Flickr / Heather Cowper
Skift Take
If Expedia was worried about angering hotels by pushing into vacation rentals, the cat is now officially out of the bag. Another factor behind the Expedia-HomeAway deal is that Booking.com has been making inroads in the U.S. with its 356,000 properties, and Expedia is hungering for more supply.
Expedia historically has been very slow to do things. It took forever to get involved in social media and, fearful of angering its big hotel partners, it took until this week for Expedia to announce it would begin offering vacation rentals from HomeAway.
When you are a big, bad online travel agency such as Expedia you can seemingly bide your time, see how markets shake out, and acquire up-
