Skift Take
Booking.com grew its vacation rental supply at a hyper clip, 51 percent in the first quarter. But vacation rentals are different than hotels, where the company has excelled, and the same formula might not be a slam dunk.
If there's one thing the Priceline Group, including Booking.com, seemingly knows how to do, it's building its supply of available properties, which stood at 1.2 million at the end of March.
But when it comes to alternative accommodations, including vacation rentals, apartment hotels and apartments, Booking.com would seem to be behind Airbnb's three million, and HomeAway's roughly 1.4 million listings.
Of these 1.2 million hotels and alternative accommodations on Booking.com at the end of the first quarter, some 640,000 were vacation rentals and apartment hotels, and that was a 51 percent jump compared with the same period in 2016.
In roughly the same timespan, Airbnb grew its listings around 20 percent to three million. Meanwhile, HomeAway, seemingly absorbed in getting its house in order during its first year under Expedia ownership, saw its vacation-rental-listings ranks tick upward 16.6 percent to 1.4 million in the first quarter.
But it's really difficult to assess the weight of the supply of the various players because there are few apples to apples comparisons.
For example, although Priceline Group CEO Glenn Fogel said during the company's earnings call Tuesday that "some of our competitors" have more alternative accommodations properties than Booking.com, a sp
